Written by a representative for Climate Action Muskoka
The new group Climate Action Muskoka is calling on all Muskoka citizens to come together at a Global Climate Strike rally and march on Friday, Nov. 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Memorial Park in Bracebridge.
It’s part of Global Strike 4 Future, in which millions of demonstrators worldwide will be calling on individuals and all levels of government to work together to take urgent action to tackle the defining issue of our time—climate change.
Grassroots momentum to combat climate change has grown in recent months, led by young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
“Kids used to worry about what they were going to be when they grew up,” said 12-year-old local climate activist Cailan Punnewaert. “Now the worry is ‘Will we have a world to grow up in?’”
Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School (BMLSS) student Kelsey Smith, one of the organizers of the school-wide walkout in September, is encouraging her classmates to “make a day of it” and participate in the Nov. 29 strike. Nov. 29 is a Board Holiday.
“I do feel like everyone should come out and support this cause,” Smith said. “We are a small town, but every town and every idea can make a change.”
“We have to do much more, and we have to do it faster,” said Tamsen Tillson of Climate Action Muskoka. “Individuals, business owners and every level of government have to join this fight.”
Similar marches are happening in Parry Sound, and the Bracebridge rally is being supported by other groups for whom climate activism is front and centre such as Muskoka Power of Many. Those unable to attend the Bracebridge demonstration in person are encouraged to put up signs on their homes or their places of work and to gather in their neighbourhoods to spread awareness of the need for urgent action.
Canada, whose per-capita emissions are more than double the average of the G20 nations, is not on track to meet its own Paris Accord targets, targets which many scientists say are too weak. Earlier this month 11,000 scientists declared a climate emergency.
A group of concerned residents has been participating in weekly climate strikes in Bracebridge since Sept. 27, when they came out to join the students of BMLSS.
For more information, email Climate Action Muskoka at climateactionmuskoka@gmail.com, or find Climate Action Muskoka on Facebook.
First of all climate change is happening it has for millions of years! If it didn’t we would be in the ice age still. Do we need to clean up, yes we do! So on that, don’t tell me that by taxing me more I am going to save the world, Greta go home! I have bought fuel efficient vehicles, live in a small house 1500 square feet, recycle, compost, reuse, send clothing to the Salvation Army, have no air conditioning! I see huge houses being built! 3000 square feet plus and 3 people living in them! Look at our lakes, huge house and boat houses! Being used 2, 3 months of the year, yet heated year round! I had a wood stove and my insurance company was charging me $180 just to have it on the property and wood I believe is neutral emissions. Carbon absorbed and carbon emitted. They have huge propane tanks that fuel those generators at anytime of the year wether their home or not! As far as Canadians produce-sing 2 times the per capita emissions, wake up, we live in a cold environment we don’t have a choice. We have a vast country, transportation is not easy, You people standing out there with the signs, need to look around. Last article I read on housing and the lumber industry, they supplied enough wood material to build 30,000 new homes a year! Where are these people coming from, we condemn cutting trees down, green peacers that is, yet no one says anything about the homes being built and the sizes of them! Head to Toronto take a look around. Just saying, but before anyone tells me to clean up my act you better be living in a soad hut and living off the land.