Submitted by Climate Action Muskoka
Huntsville will join the expanding Climate Action Muskoka (CAM) climate strikes this Friday, Feb. 7, at Town Hall from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
“People in Huntsville care deeply about climate change and know we are running out of time,” said Lesley Hastie of CAM. “We urge our political representatives at all levels to make meaningful changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the buildings we produce, the transport used, infrastructure and more.”
The group will also hold its 20th Friday climate strike in Bracebridge at Memorial Park; Gravenhurst climate strikers will hold their third strike at the Gravenhurst Post Office. Same time, same place, for all the strikes.
“It’s great that its starting in Huntsville,” said Tamsen Tillsen, founder of the Bracebridge strike. “It’s only an hour a week and, if you are concerned about climate change, it is an opportunity to speak up, speak out, build community, and keep the need for urgent action upfront.”
If you don’t feel like increasing your carbon footprint by driving in to one of the main towns, why not hold a pop-up strike at the end of your driveway or on your own street or rural road?
If you are interested in working with CAM to affect change at the municipal level in Muskoka, visit climateactionmuskoka.org or email climateactionmuskoka@gmail.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!
thanks Lesley
It’s nice to see a thoughtful post on what we can do on a personal level and your right we won’t accomplish very much until governments get involved, the carbon tax is a good start but more needs to be done. As a decades old veteran of the climate wars on the internet I can be quite cynical at times to our future and our children’s future in this warming world. With climate inertia pegged at between .5 to .7 degrees C we can forget about staying under 1.5C since we’re at 1.2C now and staying under 2 C is going to be tough. With the Paris obligations we are on track for 3 degrees by end of Century (not including feedback’s) which will make the storms we’ve seen so far seem pretty tame and our infrastructure won’t be able to keep up. As someone who works in a local township I can tell you that those costs are already being realized in ways that one wouldn’t have foreseen 10 years ago so in fact we are already paying for climate related mitigation in higher road maintenance.
So go for it and keep it up don’t let politicians off the hook, hold them accountable and don’t let the denialotti get you down, most of them have no clue as to the situation but more importantly the have no wish to learn
They are a minority
Which government is the culprit – federal, provincial, district or township?
What is their objection?
How exactly is this a “strike”?
I already have two solar generation installations, working well.
I want to add more but the government will not let me do this. There are roadblocks at all levels that prevent my increased solar installations. These roadblocks make no sense and they make the possibility of adding enough solar generation to actually make my business carbon neutral an impossibility.
I find this curious as I already have the site. I have a contractor who can do the work. Hydro One can accept the energy and I’m willing to do the entire job on my dollar, not even a subsidy or tax break but still the government does not permit me do do this in any way that is economic. They have rules that do not fit my situation and they are obscure and unapproachable to try to negotiate anything at all.
Yet this same government is supposed to “save us” from climate change. Good luck with this idea.
I can understand your frustration, Ray and Barry. And you’re right. Not many of us can rush out and buy an electric car or pickup. But we can give it serious thought when it comes to our next vehicle, and factor in the reduced maintenance and operating costs every year, and that fact that we will collect carbon tax rebates every year at tax time and yet not pay carbon taxes at the pump. 90% of Ontario’s electricity comes from non Greenhouse gases (GHGs) so let’s go electric wherever we can.
There is so much more we can do as individuals. We can buy locally grown food and grow our own vegetables to reduce transportation which is a major contributor to GHGs. We can ride share, plant a tree when a baby is born or to commemorate a loved one, eat less meat, stop wasting paper (we are cutting down too many trees) put laundry on the line or indoor rack rather than in the dryer. We can think about repairing rather than replacing household objects, shoes, clothes…. we can refuse plastic, recycle waste, compost, stop throwing away food. The list goes on…
The actions we take as individuals will help, but they won’t be enough. We need the power of our governments to make the biggest changes, for instance in infrastructure… (passenger trains, charging stations, electric buses etc.) and building materials and standards, and also to provide incentives that change behaviour, protect our environment and more. We have enough information about the sources of GHGs to understand where changes will be most effective. (e.g. “Drawdown – the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming”)
There is still time but we must act NOW.
That’s why we will be out in the cold on Fridays, to make sure we keep mitigation of climate change as an urgent priority for the sake of our children and humanity.
I just love these people running around yelling do something but not one word about just what they think should be done. We could all stop driving and walk or maybe ride a bike but still would take a long time to get to work for most. Oh I know buy an Electric car we all have a few hundred thousand dollars sitting around. So come on people lets get some good ideas on just what your striking for.
I wonder just how all the ice that was here a few thousand years ago melted there sure must have been a lot of something burning fossil fuel.
I hope all these climate change people drive a Prius and make their own ink for the posters because everything they are using has something to do with the environment. So other than wanting to be noticed in a local paper there’s not a whole lot of sense to these marches