Across Canada, 'climate champions' are taking action in their own communities
Climate change can feel like an impossible problem, with complex solutions out of reach for most of us. But when the What On Earth radio show asked listeners to nominate climate champions in their communities, there was a flood of responses.
From coast to coast, people are striving to make the world a better place with on-the-ground work in their communities. Listeners nominated their partners, family members, colleagues and neighbours for an astonishing variety of climate action.
Here are a few people finding ways to make a difference.
Sunil Singal in Vancouver is president of the grassroots, volunteer-led advocacy group Force of Nature Alliance, which was part of the campaign that saved Burnaby's Fraser Foreshore Park from city council's plan to build an organic waste facility on the wetland. Singal spends his evenings on behind-the-scenes work, organizing meetings and campaigns and reaching out to elected officials.
"We're in a climate emergency, so every chance I have, I try to spend as much time as I can working on these things," he told What On Earth host Laura Lynch. "Most elected officials are happy to chat about what your concerns are and how they can address them."
A Williams Lake, B.C.-based team, including songwriter and facilitator Shannon O'Donovan and the young singers and songwriters in the Williams Lake Climate Change Youth Group, were nominated for their song We Can Think It Out, which gives voice to the complex emotions young people feel about climate change.
"I really thought that our song was quite inspiring and I really wanted to be part of something that would help people and keep climate change from destroying our lands," said 11-year-old singer Raven Shepherd.
Justice Morningstar in Ottawa is the manager of the 20/20 Catalysts program at Indigenous Clean Energy, a training program that helps participants move clean energy projects forward in their home communities.
"'It's life-changing' is one of the main things I've heard from all our alumni — that going through the 20/20 Catalysts program has changed their lives completely," she said. "It shifted their mindset and they are able to drive their projects forward in ways that they couldn't even imagine before the program."
Nina Newington, from Mount Hanley, N.S., is an activist who's been arrested for her peaceful efforts to protect old-growth forests from logging.
"I think if there's a way through the climate and biodiversity crisis, it's actually going to take us to a better society," she said. "It's going to take us to a better way of being with each other and a less colonial mindset."
Chris Taggart in Ottawa created the Slack group Electrify 613 and the new website electrific.co to help people share information about how to make their homes more climate-friendly.
"Having kids and then seeing them grow and then seeing the future they're set up to inherit and knowing that we have choices and changes that we can make now to alter that future really inspired me to take some initiative and … try to do something to move things forward," he said.
Claire Kraatz in Calgary is the co-lead of Alberta's chapter of the climate advocacy group For Our Kids and was nominated as a champion for her work on the Alberta campaign to electrify school buses.
"I see myself as a very concerned parent who really just wants to make a small difference and try and push the needle or push that ball up the hill so that once it gets to the top, maybe we can start to see that momentum down the hill," she said.
Bruno Hoffman splits his time between his South Surrey home and his boat in Pender Harbour, B.C., and was inspired by his love of the ocean to create The Green Boater, an online resource for seafarers that includes information about how to reduce emissions at sea — from electric boats to cleaner-burning engines.
"My little part of the world is talking to boaters and seeing if we can just help them do one thing, just change one little thing times a million, and maybe we can have an impact on the ocean," he said.
Andrew Mills from Calgary is the president of the Eco-Solar Home Tour Society of Alberta, which offers free tours of energy-efficient homes around the province.
"It's about changing perceptions," he said. "Even in a province like Alberta, where everybody says, 'Oh, gas is the only way to heat,' you can actually get people looking at renewables, get people looking at their carbon footprint and … going down a path that is a little bit more sustainable."
Do you know a climate champion in your community? You can send a nomination anytime to earth@cbc.ca.
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