Voice of Real Australia is a regular newsletter from Australian Community Media, which has journalists in every state and territory. Sign up here to get it by email, or here to forward it to a friend. Today's newsletter is written by journalist Stan Gorton from The Islander in South Australia.
Climate strike action in some of Australia's small country communities proves free speech is alive and well.
A week since thousands of people rallied for greater climate change action, the discussion shows no sign of weakening.
It was interesting to listen to Greta Thunberg's address and David Attenborough's thoughts coming out after action and how that generational divide is being bridged - she's 16, he's 93, yet they are both capable of galvanising people to change.
PM Scott Morrison meanwhile has accused climate activists and the media of spreading "completely false" information about Australia's action on climate change.
He told the UN that Australia would beat its 2020 Kyoto targets and claimed it would also meet its 2030 Paris pledge.
The PM has also been on the recycling bandwagon saying incentives to recycle and make money in Australia are all wrong but he thinks he can change that.
A planned ban on waste exports from Australia in 2020 means the country will need to get much better at recycling fast.
Mr Morrison said while Australian companies like Sims and Visy or Pratt Industries - whose paper recycling mill he visited with Donald Trump in Ohio - clearly have the technology, there wasn't the commercial incentive in Australia to scale up operations.
Our PM told the United Nations overnight on Thursday that the world might be facing complex challenges but its children should be optimistic about their future.
But protesters around Australia showed that not-so quiet Australians, young and old, are not so optimistic.
We didn't just hear one side of the climate action debate last Friday, we saw them in action.
The other side made themselves loud and clear on social media.
I was taken aback by the vehemence and vitriol put out on The Islander Facebook page from those opposed to Friday's action, and it seems any action on climate change.
Some argued climate change was not real while others took issue with the students leaving school to attend the march.
Here on Kangaroo Island, a large cohort of our students decided of their own free will to join the action and march through the Kingscote central business district on Friday.
It was heartening to see the students in a remote and rural community so passionate about a subject and fighting to resolve what they believe is a real crises.
There are only 4500 people on Kangaroo Island, so to see a crowd of as many as 150 people is an indication there is a real portion of the population who wants action.
I thought the students answered the criticism beautifully by saying: "We wanted to be here today to show to the public that people care about this issue, especially young people because it's our future."
And: "The voices of young people deserve to be heard and it's easier to be heard in a group. We are too educated to be brainwashed and taking off an hour and half for one day is not going to affect our education."
It was also heartening to see students taking action in my old community of Bermagui in NSW, although I again noticed the shrill voices against the protest on social media.
One wonders what is driving the agenda against addressing climate change - is it just philosophical or political or is there something more sinister happening.
One of our followers posted a photograph of rubbish supposedly strewn on the ground at the Sydney climate action protest, which turned out to be fake and not even in Australia.
It just goes to show how important it is to get your news from credible sources such as our and other papers around regional Australia.
We on Kangaroo Island for the most part love where we live and this is probably the case around regional Australia.
Australian Community Media, the publisher of this website and newsletter, has a new website dedicated to discussing the challenges and opportunities facing regional Australia.
Future Focus project (futurefocusproject.com.au) aims to focus thinking and debate around the potential of regional cities, towns and communities, so please check it out and add your voice.
Finally, all of us on Kangaroo Island were giving thanks to Mother Nature for some badly needed spring rains. The local agriculture group AgKI even cancelled a drought workshop.
The rain on KI however does not mean we can stop worrying about a warming, drying climate caused by industrialisation and overpopulation of the planet. Because we do.
Stan Gorton
Journalist, The Islander
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Stan Gorton
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
