On Thursday October 19th, 2017, Port Elgin resident Victoria Serda was the senior mentor on a Climate Reality Leaders: Who We Are panel moderated by former American Vice-President and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. The Climate Leadership Corps Training was held at the LEED-certified David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the Climate Reality Project charity in collaboration with the Heinz Endowments.

At the biggest training to date, over 1300 new Climate Leaders graduated with certificates and green circular lapel rings after three full days of training in current climate science, communications, and giving Al Gore's slideshow. Over 11,500 people have attended these trainings with Al Gore since 2006, and he continues to teach his slideshow and moderate panels as part of the training.

One statistic that stands out from the most recent training is that the new greenhouse gas emissions have peaked globally, but there is a lot of work to be done to keep reducing emissions and ensure the temperature rise stays below 2 degrees to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Victoria's 23 mentees represented an international crowd, from Saudi Arabia to Albania, Israel to Pakistan and Eritrea to Portugal, with a variety of career backgrounds, including biotech, sustainable business, teaching, medicine, and agriculture.

"It was really inspiring to be among so many empowering people doing good things around the world," Serda said. "It was one of the biggest honours of my life to be on stage with Mr. Gore."

Victoria was chosen to be a senior mentor on the panel at the end of the conference, where Al Gore asked questions of the panelists to help inspire new Climate Leaders. Other panelists included Divya Nawale from India and Pittsburgh, Donna Hope from Brooklyn in New York, and Dean Barone from Houston and the Philippines. They covered topics included: the importance of a personal story to connect with your audience, how to work through public speaking anxiety, and how to ensure diversity and inclusion. One story Mr. Gore shared was about chains of inspiration; he used the example of his professor Roger Revelle who was part of the team that first measured carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Victoria shared advice on dealing with mental health issues, including planning rewards and taking time away from working on the climate crisis. As well, she talked about the importance of considering the trauma audience members may have gone through when showing slides of natural disasters. She also spoke about how important it is to be an ally with indigenous communities, and - referencing the recent decision from Catherine McKenna that the Saugeen Ojibway Nation must consent to the Deep Geologic Repository - how indigenous rights can help protect the land and water. To hear the whole panel, follow this link: https://step4.ca/climate-reality/

Victoria grew up in Owen Sound, where she started an environmental group at OSCVI and began public speaking about global warming. She was a Municipal Councillor in Saugeen Shores from 2006-10, is a founding board member of SauGreen for the Environment (a not-for-profit), and has worked with Saugeen First Nation on a wide variety of community projects.

Victoria Serda was one of the first 20 Canadians trained by Mr. Gore, in January of 2007 (Nashville, Tennessee), and has been a mentor seven times at trainings across North America. She carpooled to Pittsburgh in a fuel-efficient car with another mentor and a trainee from Ontario.

Please contact Victoria at [email protected] if you'd like Victoria and/or her daughter Corrina (who is also trained) to give an updated and localized climate presentation.

source: media release