Youth and their supporters are set to take part in the 4th Global Climate Strike this Friday, November 29th, 2019 from 4:30 to 5:30 pm at Owen Sound City Hall.
The event, organized by Fridays for Future Bruce Grey Owen Sound, expects more than 100 to peacefully demand that local leaders declare a climate emergency, and take urgent climate action in alignment with the best available science. The 4th global strike for climate comes as leaders head to COP25, The United Nations Climate Change Conference being held December 2-13 in Madrid, Spain, where they will make International, binding commitments to save our future – or not.
The demonstration will come two days after local youth meet with Mayor Ian Boddy to present their concerns about climate change and their demand for the City of Owen Sound to declare a climate emergency. Hundreds of people who live, work and play in Owen Sound have signed.
Then, on December 2nd, at 7pm, at Owen Sound City Hall Chambers, a presentation to City Council will be given by Sonja Ostertag and Fridays for Future youth, to help inform local leaders of the extremely urgent need to act now.
A motion to declare a climate emergency is anticipated in a future meeting.
Indigenous leaders worldwide have been the protectors of land and water for time immemorial, and are on the vanguard of environmental activism. This is true at home too. Shirley John, Elder from Saugeen First Nation, known to the Anishnabe as Strong White Buffalo Woman, is a water protector. In 2017, Shirley, with The Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON), the collective of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation and the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation, joined in a 700km “Water is Life” Water Walk. The journey following the perimeter of the SON territory was envisioned as "a prayerful journey of the People to uplift the Spirit of the Water and to maintain our relationship and responsibility to our First Mother, Shkikima Kwe and all that She sustains."
In 2018, Autumn Peltier, Anishinaabe-kwe of the Wikwemikong First Nation, addressed world leaders at the UN General Assembly on the issue of water protection, and has been covered extensively by the media. At 15, she is Chief Water Commissioner of Anishnabek Nation as her Grandmother before her.
Amidst all this work, Indigenous children living right here in our water-rich region are growing up without adequate access to clean water, because of a lack of investment in infrastructure. Ironically they must rely on bottled water to stay safe.
Youth, who will suffer the worst of climate heating’s toll if we fail to protect them, have risen to implore leaders and citizens to act.
Fridays for Future and the global strikes for climate, inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, have helped increase awareness of this need.
The first global strike for climate held on March 15, 2019, saw 1.6 million participating worldwide and just 20 in Owen Sound. In the most recent global action, “Week for Future”, 7.6 million took to the streets, according to environmental organization, 350.org. In Owen sound, 100 came out September 20th, and 200 on September 27th as part of that global week of protest.
November 29th we are honoured to welcome Shirley John, Anishnabe Elder, Strong White Buffalo Woman and Richard Yves-Sitoski, Owen Sound Poet Laureate.
Fridays for Future youth and Sonja Ostertag, PhD., Environmental Science and Post Doctoral Fellow, will lead the demonstration.
As of this writing, 1,195 local jurisdictions and municipalities so far have declared a climate emergency, according to https://climateemergencydeclaration.org, representing 454 million citizens in 25 countries. 471 cities in Canada have declared, including 35 in Ontario representing almost 11 million citizens and several councils in Grey Bruce.
The need for climate action has never been clearer. Although a half century of credible scientific reports raised warnings about the costly and deadly impacts of climate change, action has been slow and woefully inadequate. But people – and governments -- are finally starting to wake up, thanks to activists.
“The world is on a path to climate disaster, with three-quarters of the commitments made by countries under the Paris agreement “totally inadequate”, according to a comprehensive expert analysis.” – The Guardian
Earlier this month, a report published in the journal BioScience reported that 11,000 scientists warn we have to act now to address the climate crisis or commit the world to untold suffering.
Last year alone, 17 million people worldwide have fled their homes due to climate-change events, according to the Internal Displaced Monitoring Centre.
In August 2019, 70,000+ wildfires burned globally, as reported by European Space Agency in the recently deployed Sentinel-3 World Fire Atlas. This compares to under 17,000 in the same period in 2018.
Biodiversity is also suffering. In May, a UN Report warned that 1 million species globally were at risk of extinction. These include two-thirds of all birds in North America.
Demonstration schedule:
4:30 pm – Gather at City Hall and land acknowledgement
4:35 pm – Opening Blessing: Shirley John
4:45 pm – Call for speakers – we invite all youth and Indigenous peoples who wish to speak to their lived experience, their past activism, and to share their concern for present and future generations
5:00 pm – Singing, drumming, chanting
5:20 pm –Richard Yves-Sitoski, Owen Sound Poet Laureate
5:25 pm – Announcements and closing
For more information, please follow:
FridaysforFuture.Owen.Sound (Instagram – Youth – please share!)
Fridays for Future BGOS (Facebook – Supporters)
Fridays for Future Canada (Facebook)
Fridays for Future International Strike OWEN SOUND (Facebook Event Details – please share/invite!)
www.fridaysforfuture.org
Demonstrators are asked to reference these links and hashtags: #fridaysforfuture #climatestrike #schoolstrike #strike4climate @gretathunberg
For those who wish to participate but cannot physically attend, take a picture of yourself and your sign and post with the hashtag #digitalstrike.
For an up-to-date map and number of strikes announced for November 29, please visit https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/events/map.
source: media release