Sustainable Simcoe North
Lately I have been thinking about the role of youth in advocacy and action for the climate crisis. It is gravely concerning to me the disproportionate effect that climate change will have on young people whose futures will be profoundly affected.
I read a quote by American Academic Dr Robert Bullard: “Every social movement that has been successful in this country has had a strong youth and student component. The environmental justice movement, the civil rights movement, peace and justice, women’s movement and right now the climate movement. You look at young people… they are owning these issues and they’re saying ‘no, we don’t have to wait until we can vote to be mindful of the fact that we are destroying this earth and we are on the wrong direction, and we have to do something about the climate crisis.”
Most of us are familiar with #FridaysForFuture, a youth-led and organized movement that began in August 2018, after 15-year-old Greta Thunberg and other young activists sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. She posted her protest on Instagram and Twitter and it soon went viral, sparking student strikes taking place every week somewhere in the world. In 2019, there were multiple coordinated multi-city protests involving over a million students each. Thunberg has since been addressing world leaders at international forums, including the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, and the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit.
Closer to home, we can look to youth like Autumn Peltier, Anishinaabe Indigenous rights advocate from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island. In 2019, Peltier (who was 15 at the time) was named as the new Chief Water Commissioner and honoured at an Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Assembly, hosted by the Chippewas of Georgian Island First Nation, as the new “water walker.” At age 12, she publicly challenged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, demanding clean drinking water for all Indigenous communities. She addressed the United Nations in New York at the age of 13, and a documentary “The Water Walker” was made. She was also a keynote speaker at The World Economic Forum in Switzerland and, in 2021, she was awarded the Planetary Health Award for Water by Prince Albert II Foundation of Monaco.
More recently, we can look to the seven young people taking the Ford government to court for weakening Ontario’s 2030 climate target. When the Ontario government was elected in 2018, it rolled back the province’s relatively progressive climate targets, and replaced them with a significantly weaker 2030 target. In November 2019, seven young Ontarians launched a legal challenge of this decision, claiming that the Government of Ontario had infringed on their right to life, liberty, and security of the person by weakening its climate target. In April 2020, the provincial government filed a motion to strike, arguing that this case should not proceed to a full hearing. Represented by Ecojustice, the youth successfully countered this motion. The province attempted to overturn this ruling, but the young applicants again prevailed and in March 2021, the Ontario Divisional Court agreed that this case had the right to proceed to a full hearing. This is a historic legal case for Canada as it is the first time that a climate case will proceed to a full hearing on a Charter issue. The hearing is taking place as I’m writing this, where the Ontario Superior Court will determine whether Ontario violated the rights of youth and future generations when it replaced its climate targets with one inadequate 2030 target, and whether the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms includes a right to a stable climate. I had the pleasure of attending a Rally for these youth at Queen’s Park on Sunday, where I was able to hear the young people speak and send them off with support for the hearing.
As a young climate justice organizer myself, I consistently feel hopeless, defeated, and let down by politicians, corporations, and those in power. But seeing other young people organizing for climate action and holding these people/structures accountable gives me hope. Please continue to support, uplift, and amplify youth voices organizing for change. Because our future quite literally depends on it.
Green Orillia is a volunteer-run community organization dedicated to advocacy and sharing news, events, tips, resources and initiatives for sustainability in Orillia and area. Follow Green Orillia on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, join the Facebook Discussion Group, sign up for the e-newsletter, or check out the website.
