Last Friday, March 15, I went to Oxford with friends to support the Schools Strike 4 Climate Change.

It was wonderful to see so many young people from all over the area: they were not just dodging school, they were serious about the issue.

There were news camera aplenty, of course. Lots of photo opportunities for their newspapers, and the radio and television crews.

It’s so easy to get swept up in the fervour of the moment. But this was a serious effort by all these young people to get our politicians to not be such cowards and do the right thing before it is too late.

We took the opportunity to speak to a number of groups, telling them that we had been working on these issues for a long time, trying to get people around us to believe in the science; trying to get people to change some of their behaviour; trying to put the issues and some solutions across in such a way that it made it possible for them to make those changes.

It has been a long, hard slog.

And then, along comes Greta Thunberg – amazing.

She has inspired so many people with her straight talking.

She has told the politicians, mostly politely, that they are talking rubbish and should be ashamed of themselves for not doing more. Gives one hope.

We asked the young people to think about, when the euphoria from the march has perhaps died down a little in a few weeks time, what changes they were willing to make in their lives to make a difference. Could they get their parents to also make changes? They all sounded keen to do so.

I do hope the schoolchildren keep motivated to take action; to ensure that our politicians hear their voices; that the politicians take the young people seriously. Because they should.

Time is running out rapidly.

Remember the film The Age of Stupid from 2009?

The makers have created a new trailer for it, updating it to an imagined parallel world showing what is possible with significant investment from government, legislation banning single-use plastic, rewards for those travelling to school or work on foot or cycling or using public transport. And decarbonising the economy!

It is a fabulous, hopeful look at what is possible, if our government acts now!

Find it on YouTube – youtu.be/H3J3BuDXfsc.

It’s less than 10 minutes long. Well worth a watch.