Bishop’s Students at the International Day of Climate Action and Power Shift Canada 2009.
On the weekend of October 24th, three passionate environmental activists from this campus sojourned to Ottawa to be a part of the largest gathering of youth in the history of Canada. The cause: climate change inaction on the part of the Canadian government and the fast approaching 15th Convention of the Parties in Copenhagen. This coming December (7th-18th) government representatives, ENGOs, and youth will gather in Denmark to negotiate the terms of a new global agreement to combat climate change through the radical reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It is seen as the new Kyoto Protocol, which is now considered to be more or less a failure because of lack of commitment from the major players, namely the United States, China, and ours truly, Canada.
We, Katrina Kroeze, and our friend Julien Lamarche from the Université de Sherbrooke left Friday night to get to the opening ceremony of the 2009 Power Shift Youth Conference. The organizers kicked off the weekend with amazing and inspiring speakers including Majora Carter, an activist from the Bronx, and Clayton Thomas-Muller, an indigenous activist from Northern Manitoba. Throughout the weekend we attended informational workshops on things such as: indigenous activism in climate change, the Canadian mining industry, the bottled water industry, how to organize effective campaigns, and human rights. It was a great chance to meet fellow youth activists, network, and to create links with organizations such as the Sierra Youth Coalition and the Polaris Institute which will be supporting us in our upcoming campaign against bottled water on campus.
On Saturday we participated in a march from the University of Ottawa to Parliament Hill. There, about one thousand youth from all over Canada gathered with another few thousand locals, and Green Party leader Elizabeth May. There we saw the Powershift crew perform a dance as our contribution to worldwide flash mobs for the 350 campaign. The 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. Their focus is on the number 350 as in parts per million (the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 on the planet). Overall, it was a very rewarding experience, culminating in lobby day on Monday, which we were unfortunately not able to attend. We encourage you all to call and write to your MP’s to let them know how important it is that they take a stand for you in Copenhagen.
