Advocates say even knowing your neighbour is a step forward for climate action

In the battle against an uncertain climate future, climate activists say strengthening communities is key.

In a recent panel discussion on CBC's The Signal, climate advocates reacted to the latest climate news, such as this summer's devastating wildfires in Newfoundland and Labrador and across the country. 

The tone in climate change conversations has been sombre. Environmentalist David Suzuki has said to media that humanity has lost its fight against climate change. He told CBC News that the focus of the fight now should be on building communities — checking on neighbours and seeing who would "need help in an emergency."

For Megs Scott, the importance of a community was clear on the day their hometown of Port aux Basques, N.L., was hit by Hurricane Fiona, a record-breaking storm that pulled entire houses into the ocean.

The support was quick to follow.

"I think about how literally the entire island came together," Scott said.

The town received so much help that it deferred resources to nearby towns, they said. It was following that event that Scott joined the climate activism organization Fridays for Future.

They say community work can be as simple as knowing your neighbours, joining a group with like-minded people, sharing knowledge, all so that if a climate disaster does hits, the community is stronger and able to help one another better.

"It's not only the community work, but it's also the way in which community melds together in times of emergency," Scott said.

An overall systematic change 

Leah Casey, a biology college student at Memorial University and a climate advocate, says the burden of climate action can't fall entirely on individual people.

"I think it's the systems that have been built and structures that people can't get away from," Casey said, like the abundance of plastic products one might encounter while shopping for necessities.

She says the change starts with the local communities people are part of, like her community in Conception Bay South, where her work in the community garden helped with food insecurity and added green spaces.

"All of the communities around the world need to work together as one," she said. "There's elections coming up. We all need to work together to make sure that our elected officials are going to support our interests and make sure that there's going to be climate action on a large scale."

"We're part of a whole"

Richard Whitaker, a long-time climate advocate from Portugal Cove-St. Philips, says the issue lies with selfishness, greed and people's need to "have everything": a wasteful consumerist ideology that fuels climate change.

"Two people living in a house that historically would have housed 20," he said. "We are self-centred and we don't realize that we're part of a whole, or don't act as if we're part of a whole, and we have a responsibility to hold."

But facts and science knowledge don't often get to people's hearts, says Mary Tee, former director of the Mercy Centre for Ecology and Justice.

"There has to be a moral, spiritual way into this because we have to have a change in consciousness, and I don't think rules and regulations will bring that about," she said.

"It has to be tapping to our very hearts and our feelings ... we're not just individuals, you know, we're responsible not just for ourselves, but for our community."

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