16-year-old climate activist mocked on radio
A 16-year-old climate activist has been mocked on a New Zealand radio show, prompting a furious response from the teenager's mother.
School Strike 4 Climate member Izzy Cook was speaking to NewstalkZB host Heather du Plessis-Allan about a recent trip she took to Fiji, just moments after telling the interviewer she shouldn't fly to the tropical location.
When the comments were made, raucous laughter erupted from the host.
“So we would have to apply to have like, approved events to be able to fly for?” du Plessis-Allan asked when discussing the climate impacts of air travel.
“Well that’s one thing that you could look at doing,” Cook said.
“Am I allowed to go to Fiji? Is that necessary?” du Plessis-Allan asked.
Cook replied, “In the current climate crisis, I don’t think that that’s necessary.”
The host then asked when was the last time Cook was on a plane.
“Mm, I’m not sure – maybe a few months ago to be honest,” she said.
“Where’d you go?” the host asked.
“Fiji,” Cook conceded.
The host then erupted in laughter, asking “Izzy! Izzy! Don’t you care about the climate, Izzy?”
The teenager conceded it was “pretty ironic but to be honest it’s not really a trip that I wanted to go on but I can’t really get out of it because my parents wanted to go”.
“Are you embarrassed that your parents did that to the planet and then forced you to do it as well?” du Plessis-Allan asked.
“Of course I’m not embarrassed,” she said.
“Did you have a terrible time?” the host asked.
“Not really,” the teen said, sparking more laughter.
du Plessis-Allan ended the interview telling Cook she was “such a champion” who had a “brilliant future ahead of you”, mockingly asking, “Are you doing another strike soon?”
“Yeah well we’ll look to,” Cook said.
“Good, we’ll talk to you again,” the host laughed. “We might get you back on the show.”
After the clip of the interview went viral online, Izzy's mother penned a furious opinion piece saying the host should be “ashamed” for “bullying” her daughter.
“On Friday evening, I listened in horror as my 16-year-old daughter had a phone conversation with someone who appeared to be bullying her, laughing at her, and talking over her,” Rose Cook wrote in The Spinoff.
“As soon as she got off the call I demanded to know who the hell was speaking to my child in this way.”
Rose went on to defend her daughter's low carbon lifestyle, and said commentators like Heather du Plessis-Allan are more interested in the "gotcha moments" than listening to young people about the state of the environment.
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