On Saturday, Oct. 24, Winnipeggers will join fellow Canadians in one of over 200 events across the country to ask Stephen Harper to take action on climate change.

The gatherings are part of a Global Day of Action on Climate Change, timed to give world leaders a wake-up call before the United Nations’ final round of climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark this December.

A strong call for action from Canadian citizens could be important in giving the negotiations an opportunity to succeed, since the Canadian government has worked to weaken past agreements.

“Canada’s position and record on climate change have become a global embarrassment,” said Josh Brandon, spokesperson for Resource Conservation Manitoba. ‘‘Not only have we had among the fastest growing emissions in the world, our prime minster continues to promote so-called ‘intensity based reductions.’ This is simply Harper-speak for the idea that oil companies can continue to pollute as much as they like, so long as we don’t impede their economic growth.”

What we need, Brandon said, are “real, substantial cuts in greenhouse gases to get us below 350 parts per million.” He said Manitoba in particular is at the front lines of climate change, with expected increased variability of precipitation (meaning more floods and droughts) and warming rates up to double the global average.

Organizers of the Oct. 24 rally outside the Manitoba Legislature have lined up a variety of speakers, as well as live music and an audio link to another Day of Action event, the Fill the Hill gathering in Ottawa. Winnipeg participants will walk from the Legislature to the Canadian Human Rights Museum site at the Forks, where they will pose for their photo shot.

Their picture will join others from thousands of events in 158 countries, to be displayed to global media from the giant screens in New York City’s Times Square, then hand-delivered to diplomats and delegates at the UN Headquarters. The show is coordinated by 350.org, an organization founded last year to raise awareness about the latest climate-change research, which indicates that the probable threshold of atmospheric CO2 to prevent runaway global warming is 350 parts per million.
Recent Red River Community College graduate Chelsea Grove, instigator of Winnipeg ‘s rally, said a climate workshop at the Global Youth Assembly in Edmonton inspired her to take action. But her deeper motivation is knowing “the choices I make will ultimately affect my child.”

The message she wants to share is simple:

“We need to act now so that our children and the generations to come after us don’t have to suffer because of the choices we make.”

Published in Volume 64, Number 8 of The Uniter (October 22, 2009)