The months long street protests in Hong Kong, shocking as they are to outsiders, might well provide a kind of beacon to those young people who are terrified about climate change. For some time now there have been largely peaceful protests in Australia, with a few outlying acts of civil disobedience. But thus far they have failed to sway the opinion of the Federal Government, whose mantra of growth and fiscal rectitude remain its only dismal rejoinder. That, and the irrelevant notion that we are only minor emitters of carbon, comprise the piss-poor response from this supine generation of politicians. It is a wonder that younger generations have been so peaceful in their protests.

But that may change. If you feel your very life is threatened by the inaction of your elders, nay, that they are complicit in over-riding both the science and the legitimate fears of millions, then I think that there is every possibility that the nature of protest will change. Young people are equipped with the knowledge and skills that could make a campaign of industrial and economic sabotage plausible and potentially devastating. I do not advocate it - my methods are peaceful - but I understand that groundswell of feeling that might unleash it.

Listen up in Canberra, and elsewhere too!