Today’s young people will face different challenges in climate change adaptation.
“Most of our projections of climate change only extend out to 2100,” says Graham Green, principal advisor on Climate Change Science for the South Australian Government.
“But out towards that second half of the century, where children born today will be living the prime part of their lives, we’re looking at global temperature changes between one and a half, to three degrees, potentially more.”
Green describes the likelihood of more frequent extreme events such as floods and bushfires, surpassing the limits we’re currency used to. He says that these unprecedented conditions will increasingly impact people's lives, revealing a growing challenge in adapting to climate change.
Graham Green, principal advisor on Climate Change Science for the South Australian Government. Credit: Kyla Brettle
Troy started work at Maryborough Education Centre four years ago as a contractor doing maintenance. Then a job came up as the Groundsman and Sustainability Officer, at the start of last year, and he jumped on it.
Troy felt for the students at his school and how they’ve been let down by the system they were born into. It’s not just their age that puts them in the front line of climate impacts, it’s their postcode too. Climate change makes existing inequity worse.
Troy Butler Credit: Carmen Bunting
These kids are scared of the future. They do realise that we’ve stuffed up and they’re a bit lost.Troy Butler
Sustainability Leadership Group
Troy wanted to help young people to reclaim the situation. He set up a sustainability leadership group - basically a club for anyone across all grade levels, interested in climate change and doing something about it.
The Sustainability Leadership Group became a space where students could not only make a difference but also build connections and face the climate challenges together.
Apply to be a group member
Troy wanted students to take the Sustainability Leadership Group seriously and attract people with genuine interest and passion. Keen students filled out an application form and did an interview. Everyone was accepted.
Student mentors
Troy didn't just stop at recycling initiatives. He knew these kids needed more — a sense of purpose and a chance to lead.
Reflecting on the value of mentoring in his life, Troy set up a mentoring program within the group. Older students took on leadership roles to create a supportive environment for younger students, where everyone’s voice mattered.
Student drawing at MEC Credit: Carmen Bunting
I’m only 16, so there’s a lot of things to go. If we don’t start changing things now, things are going to get really sideways by the time I’m old enough and the next generation of kids come through.Student Jacob Olver
Leadership in a safe space
Troy recognises the distractions in students' lives, and that "many people will be aware that [Maryborough] has socio-economic challenges."
Troy emphasises the transformative potential of a space like the leadership group: "This environment is sometimes their safe space, so if it’s where they feel safe it’s where we can make the most change."
He points out how the students in the sustainability leadership group are not just dealing with the typical challenges of their age but also facing the exacerbation of existing inequities due to climate change.
STUDENTS at MEC
Students in the Sustainability Leadership Group are understandably frustrated at the lack of action by previous generations."They’ve had so long to actually help fix it, and they haven’t up until about now."
Despite this, the students are committed and passionate about leading change on climate, saying “I love it and I just think that I need to keep doing this.”
‘A seed for the future and for this area’
"The whole reason for the group - is to make them understand that they can make change as a small group and as a small group and as a community. Who knows what they are going to grow into and what change they are going to make. My little group I’ve started here is the seed - the seed for the future - for this area."
LISTEN TO
Growing leaders in Maryborough: How a school groundsman and students tackle climate change
SBS Audio
28/04/202418:09
Guests in this episode of Everything We Need
Troy Butler, David Sutton, Ella Crofts, Jacob Olver, Cody Robertson, Evelyn Axford, Ahren Ashbrook, Thomas Camponelli, Makayla Stork, Reuben VanLand, Zalrie Bowler, Ali Whittle, Graham Green.
Credits
Kyla Brettle: Research, recording, editing and sound
Jane Curtis: Story editor and consulting producer
Rob Law: Original Music
Photography: Carmen Bunting
Produced with support from the SBS Audio team, Caroline Gates and Joel Supple
This series is based on an earlier series called Climate Ready Stories commissioned by Dona Cayetana and Geoff Caine as part of the Victorian State Government's .
Transcript
This podcast was produced on the lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung. We pay our respects to elders past and present and express our gratitude for their Care of this Country- and extend that respect to all First Nations People listening.
Student #1: Three, four, five, six, seven.
Teenager: What’s this one say?
Student #1: Climate change.
Teenager: Climate change. What’s this last one say here?
Student #1: Drought.
Teenager: Drought, good boy.
Reuben VanLand: Maybe one day climate change might change so much that maybe the world might turn into a square.
Student #3: Well, I know one thing about the climate change. If there's a red sky in the morning, that would mean that there’s rain coming
Jacob Olver: I’m only 16, so there’s a lot of things to go - if we don’t start changing things now things are going to get really sideways by the time I’m old enough and the next generation of kids come through
Reuben VanLand: ‘Cos like all the heat might like change the world and shape shift it.
One of the challenges of adapting to the changing climate is simply imagining a world that’s different from the one we know and expect to wake up to every day.
Reuben VanLand: Cause climate change is turning so strong, that if we don’t stop it, the world might turn into something different.
I’m Kyla Brettle and this is ‘Everything we need.’ a climate podcast about.... making change in our lives for the better.
With stories about people but asking what can we do to adapt using the tools and materials we have now - and rethinking what we all need to thrive, now and into the future
Graham Green: Most of our projections of climate change only extend out to 2100.
But out towards that second half of the century, where children born today will be living the prime part of their lives, we’re looking at global temperature changes between one and a half, to three degrees, potentially more.
And so climate conditions start to move towards more of those extreme events such as the floods and the bushfire conditions of 2019.
So the limits that we are used to dealing with - we start to go beyond those limits, and they are things we haven’t experienced before, and also that our infrastructure isn’t set up to go beyond those limits.
It’s going to start impinging on people’s lives more regularly.
Graham Green, principal advisor on Climate Change Science for the South Australian Government.
It’s difficult imagining what life will be like when the people who are young today are in their prime.
In my experience the difference between 1.5 degrees and 3 plus degrees is about choosing a t-shirt over a skivvy - not the difference between ‘really bad’ and ‘catastrophic’.
Though of course, we are all closer to understanding what the numbers really mean - because the planet has already warmed by over 1 degree - and the impact of that is severe enough.
But has this changed the way you think about the future? It kinda has for me, but maybe not really enough.
It’s certainly made me worried for the young people I care about
And how I don’t them to feel woken up in the middle of the night with someone banging on their window. Sudden, unexpected. Unprepared for this situation
I want them to feel supported and able to respond.
So How do we help young people prepare for change - when we haven’t dealt with so well ourselves?
Troy Butler is someone whose upfront about not having all the answers… and it hasn’t stopped him stepping up and beyond his role at work to support the young people in his life.
[School PA announcement]
Troy Butler: So yeah, this is is another beautiful garden that was installed by myself. So I actually come in and this was my first job. This garden through here and …
Troy Butler works at Maryborough Education centre - which is a primary, secondary and special needs school rolled into one, it’s on Djaara country, about a half hour drive from the regional city of Ballarat in Victoria
Troy Butler: Yeah, I started here four years ago as a contractor, doing the maintenance. And a job came up as the groundsman and sustainability officer, at the start of last year.
The kids say, “What are you doing here? You’re just the gardener.”
But when I started here I said I wanted sustainability and groundsman written on my clothes. On my shirts. Sso I just turn around and say, “Read it, guys. This is what I do.”
Troy feels for the students at his school and how they’ve been let down by the system they were born into.
Troy Butler: These kids are scared of the future. They do realise that we have stuffed up and they’re a bit lost.
It’s not just their age that puts them in the front line of climate impacts. But their postcode and how climate change makes existing inequity worse.
Troy Butler: Maryborough’s a wonderful community and many people will be aware that it has socio-economic challenges. And in a number of studies ranks as the most disadvantaged local government area in Victoria.
Troy wanted to do something to help support these young people to reclaim the situation, and decided to start up a sustainability leadership group - basically a club for anyone across all grade levels, interested in climate change and doing something about it.
Troy Butler: So I approached the Principle, and asked if it would be a good idea and he was really for the idea.
David Sutton: The right person came along at the right time. Troy shows through his role modelling how to lead a more sustainable life and create a more sustainable organisation. He does that with the kids but he also keeps me and the teachers. He supports us to learn as well.
Troy Butler: Straight away, “Oh, we’ll just have a little green army to pick up the rubbish.” And I went no, it’s much more than that.
Student #1: I heard about it - that it was to help make the school a better place, so I thought that would be good
Jacob Olver: It was over assembly, actually. Over an assembly and Troy was talking about it and I thought yeah, that’s actually something I might want to do…
Student #3: As soon as they actually said it was going to start I was like, this is the thing for me and I just love the environment and I hate how climate change is happening and global warming.
Jacob Olver: And come straight here to Troy’s office and I seen him. Got a little form that I had to fill out.
Student #1: We had to fill out this form for Troy. We had to go through interviews and all that. And most people got in. I don’t think there was anybody who didn’t get in.
Jacob Olver: And then, a couple of weeks later he come up to me and said, “I was in as a Senior School Leader. And yeah, been in it ever since.
Troy Butler: That first group, that first day, I went, “Oh no, what have I got myself into? Hahahaha Especially the younger kids.
Troy Butler: G’day Max, how are you? So with my sustainability group, maybe you can go up and grab some pens and stuff.
Troy Butler: We’re in the library today. And we’ve got some books on climate change - and we’ve invited a year 1 and 2 class up with my sustainability leadership group to go through the books and do the activities and enjoy the morning.
Don’t let the little kids have the scissors, just do the cutting, alright?
High school student: I was going to say, I don’t want to really give those out.
Troy Butler: That first day that first group that first meeting - there was only 18 of the students but it was like having a group of 60 - it really was.
Student # 4: If they were like little kids like preps or something - they would be very very loud
Troy Butler: They were just so excited to just be out of class and running around, doing something new.
Student # 4: The thing that’s hard about it is when they don’t really listen, or they do the opposite of what you tell them. Like that table that was over there, they weren’t really very listening.
Troy Butler: I had to make it fun. (laughs) As an example, we had a game last week and it was called the raft and it was made out of all recycled blocks and stuff and and just relating it back to what our purpose is.
Troy Butler: It’s about overcoming the problems isn't it, it’s not really about having problems - but overcoming them
Troy Butler: And once the students saw what it was about, they started talking to their friends. Other students were coming over, what are you doing over here?
Makayla Stork: Cause my friend’s like, “Hey, you should join.” So I was like, “Okay, sure.”
Reuben VanLand: And then I was like, I really want to join it - what is it about - I didn’t even ask what it is about
Troy Butler: So now we’ve got about forty involved. We’ve got about eight senior students and about thirty-two junior students.
The sustainability leadership group has been popular with the students - But it hasn’t been easy. It’s taken time for the rest of the school to understand the club’s purpose.
Troy Butler: for the last 12 months since the group has been going that’s all I’ve been getting. “Oh, when are they going to be picking up rubbish? When are they going to be picking up rubbish?”
Troy Butler: And it’s like, Mate, they are not going to be picking up rubbish. This is a leadership group. This is to make them think bigger than just picking up rubbish. How can we fix that problem?
And with so many students joined up to the group, Troy was struggling to manage it all alongside his duties as the school gardener and groundsman.
Troy Butler: I’m not an octopus, and I haven’t got all the answers.
That’s how Troy hit upon an idea that came from his own experience as a young person.
Something that helped him navigate the world, when the closest adults to him weren’t always the best ones to follow.
Troy Butler That’s where I come up with the mentor program and engaged the Senior students to be the Juniors’ mentors.
Student: Wait this one is another one - hopefully not another drought
Student: And then their crops can’t grow - and they can’t sell what they’re growing
Student: No sorry, we have to write down who we think’s been impacted. So who gets affected by each of these?
Student: Ummm
Troy Butler: A couple of my senior students joined the group just to get out of class.
So it was really good to make them mentors and give them purpose.
To be honest, that’s why I started this group. To give those guys the opportunity, because they don’t get the opportunity. Those types of people are usually pushed to the side. Or they’re so fill up with their own stuff they can’t see the opportunity.
And this environment is sometimes their safe space, so if it’s where they feel safe it’s where we can make the most change.
Kyla Brettle: I don’t know, how do you do that with the kids, how do you empower them, I guess?
Troy Butler: Treat them as equals and being vulnerable. Think has been the biggest things I’ve come across in this school and working in this environment, is to be vulnerable. And not to walk around with your chest out, knowing everything. And being able to draw from these fantastic people
Troy Butler: I didn’t know any of this, I’ve had to have mentors in my life, as an adolescent, as a young teenager boy, I missed a lot of opportunities, when it come to mentors, and you look back and - that guy was reaching out to me - and I could have gained a lot from him.
When I was about 10, 11, I had a really good friend of the family, I used to call him Uncle Pete, and he was my mentor, and he showed me how to be vulnerable.
“I’m struggling with this Troy, I’d really like to get this achieved.” And as a young boy it’s like, I’ve got something to do here now.
Troy Butler: After Uncle Pete died, I had an apprenticeship and I had a really hard time with my boss. And, I was abused in my job and all that sort of stuff. So it showed me two flip sides of the coin, and I could see what was benefit and and what wasn’t benefit.
So then I was open to better mentors in my life, and I was starting to be a mentor myself.
Student: I don’t really think…. Not really sure what sustainability means.
Evelyn Axford: It’s about nature and the habitat and the life cycle of animals and stuff like that - and it’s about respecting it and how to recycle, and what bin to put things in.
Troy Butler: A lot of their mentors, their parents and stuff, are distracted - more distracted these days, with their mental health, and separated families, and relationship breakdowns, and the pandemic, and their struggles with work and with climate change, it’s hard not to get pulled down into it. We can always look at things in a more positive light and.. and move together as a community.
Kyla Brettle: Does it make you feel a little bit cross, with the adults, handing on this world which is so?
Student: Well, they’ve had so long to actually help fix it, and they haven’t up until about now. So, yeah, it sorta makes me cross, but then I’m like, they didn’t really know earlier on.
Kyla Brettle: And do you think you’ll still keep on working for climate change?
Student: Yes, I definitely will. It’s my passion, I love it and I just think that I need to keep doing this to actually feel like I’m doing something.
Troy Butler: The whole reason for the group - is to make them understand that they can make change as a small group and as a small group and as a community. Who knows what they are going to grow into and what change they are going to make.
My little group I’ve started here is the seed - the seed for the future - for this area.
I’m a gardener for a reason. From seeds, big things grow.
I find it refreshing to hear how Troy is supporting young people. He’s not doling out the wisdom and glossing over the awkward bits - but making a space for them to support one another and asking them to think beyond band-aid solutions and set tasks - to how to get us out of this mess.
Kyla Brettle: And if you were the ruler of the world, what would you do?
Ahren Ashbrook: What I’d do is like - the only thing we are going to use is a wooden mallet, and it’s giant and we going to like smash all the cars and keep buying bikes and stuff so we can go on short things….
Many thanks to Ahren Ashbrook for sharing his thoughts and to everyone else you heard in the story too - Troy Butler, David Sutton, Ella Crofts, Jacob Olver, Cody Robertson, Evelyn Axford, Thomas Camponelli, Makayla Stork, Reuben VanLand, Zalrie Bowler, Ali Whittle and Graham Green.
In the next episode I’m going nowhere - staying right at home here in Castlemaine, the big town in the small shire of Mount Alexander - where a tiny bespoke community composting scheme is challenging the status quo.
Lucy Young: It’s about people reconnecting where they live and really doing what it is to serve life, in place.
So make sure you are following Everything We Need on the SBS AUDIO - or wherever you get your podcasts.
Everything we need is written, recorded, edited and produced by me, Kyla Brettle
with Jane Curtis as story editor, writing show notes and providing additional research and production assistance
All the music you heard was by Rob Law - with a Uncle Paul Chapman playing the yidaki
Production photography by Carmen Bunting
And all made possible with support from the SBS Audio - and a shout to Caroline Gates and Joel Supple.
This podcast is based on an earlier documentary called Climate Ready Stories as part of the Victorian state government's Climate Ready Plan for the Lodden Mallee.
produced by Endgame Media and with executive production from Dona Cayetana
Thanks for listening, I’m Kyla Brettle see you next time.
