On Friday September 23rd, community members gathered on the steps of Owen Sound’s City Hall to share climate awareness, discuss strategies and make it clear to council and school trustee candidates that moving ahead with a Climate Lens in Owen Sound city politics and city decisions is a non-negotiable. Calls to Action included; 
municipal leaders fully supporting the immediate implementation of Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program, hiring a city climate specialist and the municipality meeting their laid out time frame goals set out in their new Climate Action Strategy. The kids table was bursting with colourful, passionate climate signs, there was an awareness board with local climate articles, candidates and community members spoke to their climate commitments and Sonja Ostertag’s beautiful violin brought smiles to everyone’s faces.
"Climate change is the biggest, most urgent problem we face as a global community. We can no longer continue with ‘business as usual’ in the way we approach our daily consumptive habits; as individuals, political leaders and corporations we must take urgent and innovative action. For thousands of years indigenous peoples all over turtle island, planet earth, have understood and practiced a balanced, non-exploitive approach to sustainable living. Through relatively recent years of colonization, the industrial revolution and capitalistic approaches to living, the earth and its fragile inhabitants have been exhausted at an unprecedented rapid rate. The IPCC‘s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees states that “limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees would require rapid and far reaching transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport and cities.”
Owen Sound community members, and thankfully select council and school board trustee candidates, grasp the gravity of this climate crisis and our need to act immediately and effectively.
Present at Friday’s event were at least two council candidates - Meghan Robertson and Jon Farmer , and one school trustee candidate - Michael Craig, Jon stated that we need to consider all municipal decisions with the climate in mind. “We need to think with the perspective of ‘Climate AND’. It’s not the climate OR the economy, nor climate OR your agenda item. We need to inclusively think about the climate AND the economy/ your agenda item.” Furthermore, Farmer argues that, “Owen Sound Council and our world need to account for the triple bottom line. This means to consider the social, environmental and financial impacts and benefits of our decisions; a framework that our next generation are relying on us to adopt.”
New to Owen Sound, outdoor environmental educator and teacher in Meaford, Hil Coburn, felt humbled to coordinate this local Climate Action Day. She has remarked on the inspiring hard work, passion and drive that so many local climate advocates have and the years of dedicated work they have done to support and challenge OS city leaders on their environmental commitments. Unfortunately despite this phenomenal community motivation, Owen Sound municipal leadership can not pride themselves at being Climate Action leaders, yet. Toronto committed to a climate action plan in 1990; 32 years later we are finally committing to our own climate action plan and there is absolutely no time to waste.
Local climate leader Dr.John Anderson insists that we plan within our cities through the ‘lens of climate change.’ As written in his Grey-Bruce Climate Action Network Spring 2020 document, “Developing a plan for a safe and sustainable future in our changing climate requires a vision. This vision is an integration of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to the new realities of climate impacts and building a new clean growth strategy.” Dr. Anderson states that “six themes that typically emerge from Climate Action Plans (CAP) are infrastructure, transportation, natural environments, partnerships, food and water security, and education.”
So what can you do about the climate crisis? You can start by learning about local political platforms, asking councillors/trustees what their climate commitments are and then decide what community climate leaders you will vote for. Your informed vote will be needed Oct 24th!! Take the time to make your own household commitments to lessening your ecological footprint; on Friday community members shared commitments like walking and cycling, composting, fixing before ditching items, and talking about climate change.
Keep up to date with events and actions you can take locally by following:
-Climate Forum https://www.facebook.com/
-Sustainability Project https://
-Join Climate Action Team Owen Sound: Contact Joachim Ostertag [email protected]
-Watch locally produced film, Resilience: Transforming a Community https://resiliencedoc.info/
-Grey Bruce Climate Action Network (GBCAN) has a website coming soon
source: media release
