Gettin' Political

For the past couple of weeks in Ottawa, I've been having way too much fun playing with friends, MPs, and fantastic people in the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. Some highlights include:

Making a giant invoice for the government of Canada for the cost of inaction on climate change, since it wasn't addressed in the new federal budget. (Sir Nicholas Stern estimates that this cost will be around $71,900,000 per year for Canadians - yep, that's almost 72 billions bucks.)

Look - even Stephen Harper showed up to present us with a cheque.


Attending Clean Air Committee hearings in Parliament all last week to see how this special committee would re-work the government's proposed environmental legislation. Even though they mostly spent time saying things like "I think section 1(a)4 should be replaced with subject 1(b) 5.2" , the politicians also got some real zingers in at each other. They also got a ton of work done - all the opposition parties joined together to force some strong amendments on meeting Kyoto Protocol targets, penalties for businesses that emit too much carbon, and the creation of climate change "hot spots" which will be targeted for protection.

We were also on hand to share tasty fortune cookies with MPs, minions and other assorted politicos attending the Committee hearings.

I mean, who doesn't need a little encouragement cleverly disguised inside baked goods?

This past weekend, I went to a great teach-in held by the Council of Canadians on the proposed US-Canada Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) called Integrate This! It was really educational and also, to be honest, a little bit frightening. I'd encourage you all to educate yourself on this issue because it could have a huge impact on our sovereignty over natural resources (including oil and water), health care, military, transportation regulation, environmental policy and lots of other really key areas.

My friends Rosa & Ben were invited to speak about climate change & the SPP - and they were totally amazing. They reminded me of how articulate, heartfelt & plain old damn smart young people often are, even in front of 600 people, about 5 TV cameras, Avi Lewis and a few heckling members of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition (we only heckle out of love).


Lastly, we made sure to let our leaders know that young people in Canada are proud of the work they've been doing, and that we hope they can keeping on working together to make the (newly re-named) Clean Air & Climate Change Act happen! Sadly, the conservative government is threatening to block the bill by refusing to put it to a vote in the House of Commons, but hopefully they'll come around. Maybe they just need more fortune cookies?

On a non-political note, it's finally getting to be spring in Ottawa. Here's a picture of a partially-melted Rideau Canal and a blue blue spring sky:


I hope it's warm where you're at too!

Blame Canada

I just came across this video that Greenpeace & the South Park crew made last fall in response to Canada's refusal to support a UN-proposed moratoriam on bottom trawling.

Feel free to just enjoy the video, but if you want some background, here it is:

Bottom trawling is a fishing method where a huge net weighted with steel gates drags along the bottom of the ocean floor to scoop up bottom feeding fish. In the process, it also scoops and scrapes up other fish, plants, coral and everything that lives at the bottom of the sea. According to the UN, about 95% of damage caused to seamount floors is because of trawling, which is pretty horific given the tiny number of fish that trawlers actually catch - less than 1% of overall fish catch. So it's kind of like killing mosquitos with a nuclear bomb.

In the end, the moratorium that was proposed last fall didn't reach UN consensus, probably because of strong opposition by certain *cough cough* parties. Canada was happy.

MTV makes a hip-hop video about global warming?

Kids these days and their newfangled music. This has gotta be the most hilarious message about saving the world that I've ever seen.....complete with Steve Erkel look-alike. Yay!

Moving forward on the Kyoto Protocol?

This week, UN Climate Change meetings in Nairobi are wrapping up. Although there's been progress on some issues, like funding for projects to help developing countries adapt to climate change, things aren't moving along as quickly as many people had hoped. It seems like many countries are sticking to their "party lines" rather than focusing on the Convention's overall goal: stopping the threat of dangerous climate change.


In our own back yard, the Canadian government's performance at these important meetings is absolutely embarassing. Canadian delegates have blocked motions to transfer cleaner technology to developing countries, refused to meet Kyoto targets, withdrawn funding for sustainable development projects, and supported proposals that they knew absolutely nothing about. Considering that more Canadians rank the environment as their number one concern than anything else (yes, even more than health care!), this abysmal performance definitely isn't in Canadians' best interests. I mean, even the majority of Albertans would be open to a carbon tax!

Kofi Annan opened high-level discussions today with a great speech, drawing strong links between vulnerability to climate change, poverty and sustainable development. He reminded government ministers and negotiators that this is not just an environmental issue - a changing global climate affects many other important areas, like human health, water and agriculture. As he so aptly remarked, “Global climate change must take its place alongside the threats of conflict, poverty and the proliferation of deadly weapons that have traditionally monopolized first-order political attention.”

As this year's round of talks draws to a close I, along with thousands of others worldwide, hope that countries will be able to set aside their differences at these negotiations and focus on the common end goal: creating a future that we'll all want to take part in.

Halloween and hibernation

Okay, I know I've been a bit of an absentee blogger lately, and I apologize. It got cold here, and I went into hibernation mode, and found it hard to get motivated to do anything except snuggle in bed with a mug of tea and a good book. And then I remembered that people don't get to hibernate, and now here I am again! So, here's Liz's past week in a nutshell:

Halloween!

The Europeans don't really celebrate Halloween, but my roomate Beatrice & I still managed to celebrate in expat style. Keeping with our greeny enviro-roots, here's us all dressed up in our Halloween finest for a party:

And here's my costume at the end of the night, stuffed into my bag. I really don't have a lot of patience for wires that poke or things that restrict movement in any way. Handy how it all folds in there, n'est-ce pas?

Work

After that, I had a busy week at work, helping my supervisor get ready to go to Nairobi for the convention of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol, which started today. So keep your fingers crossed everyone that there'll be some concrete outcomes to this meeting, like a work plan for developing emissions reductions commitments after 2012, when Kyoto commitments end! (Yes, I am a climate nerd, and I don't care. So there.) Unfourtunately, due to funding something-or-others I wasn't able to go to Nairobi too, but I'm trying not to focus on that : )

Instead, I'm thinking about the amazing young Canadians who are in Nairobi now as part of a 20+ strong youth delegation, and who will undoubtedly inject much needed passion, energy & dedication to these important meetings. Yay!

And going to France...

This past weekend brought me to Freiburg, Germany again but unfourtunately I have no exciting pictures or anecdotes to share with you so as I pretty much hibernated there so I'll skip over that, which bring us to Monday, which is today. On Mondays I go to France to teach piano lessons and I have to say, I still love how casually I can say that on Mondays I "go to France". I don't think I'll ever be cool enough not to be excited by this.

And that's the scoop coming to you live from Geneva. I hope you're all well! Is it cold in Canada? Rainy in Vancouver? Awww... rainy Vancouver. Much love from the land of yodels and Rolex!

These people make me excited to get up in the morning!

This past weekend, a group of amazing people representing over 35 youth-based organizations all over Canada got together in Toronto & formed a Canadian Youth Climate Coalition.

Now I don't know about you all, but I personally can't even read the above sentence without feeling all warmy and fuzzy inside. Scratch that- it actually makes me feel all warm and activisty inside, like I physically can't sit still in my chair because I need to be out doing something- anything- to make the world a better place.

I'm really excited about the energy and momentum behind this movement and in my boundless energy & enthusiasm, I'd like to share with you a few things about you, me & climate change.

First of all, if you wanna know more about this fantastic Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, here's a link to an article about the conference last weekend and here's the declaration itself.

Now, I was originally planning to share a scary article about how arctic ice is melting much more quickly than anyone expected, along with an equally scary article about environmental refugees in Bangladesh who are forced out of their homes because of climate-change related flooding, but then I thought hey- it's Friday, so let's be a little more upbeat, shall we?

So, in the warm and activisty spirit of this post, here I present to you:


10 things you (yes you!) can do today to help stop climate change.

1. Drive less. Even one day a week less. C'mon- do you really need to take the car to the video store? Wouldn't you feel good if you got on your bike once a week to go to work?

2. Make smart food choices. This means buy local and eat less meat. Bonus points if you can eat organic. (I swear this isn't vegetarian propaganda- meat is really energy-consuming, especially beef, and locally grown food consumes way less fossil fuels because it's not tranported across the world.)

3. Switch your lightbulbs to compact flourescents. They save tons of energy & will last forever, so you save money too.

4. Write your local MP and tell them how important it is for Canada to meet its Kyoto commitments. If you're American, this applies too! Canadians, you can find the name and address of your local MP here.

5. Turn off your car if you are idling for more than 10 seconds. That's right Ashley Rose- I said 10 seconds : )

6. Reduce your home heating & cooling. Set your thermostat one degree lower in the winter & two degrees higher in the summer.

7. Bring your own bags to the grocery store. At the very least, for the love of god, please don't let them double bag!

8. Buy a reusable coffee mug for your daily Starbucks/ Second Cup/ Cuppa Joe fix.

9. Avoid air travel whenever possible. Take the train if you can (it's fun!)

10. Buy carbon offsets for your energy consumption. These are essentially investments that you make in renewable energy to offset the impacts of your fossil fuel consumption. The David Suzuki website has a great list of places where you can buy carbon offsets.


See- not so bad, right? It's like the Letterman top 10 list, except without the kicky punchlines. And these are totally things that you can do. Come on- try one today. You'll feel great. You can even brag about it. The polar bears will thank you.

All right, I'm off to change the world!

Love,
Liz

Why won't our government step up to the plate?

A new poll just came out that shows that 77% of Canadians want our government to meet or exceed Kyoto targets when it comes to reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions and slowing climate change. So then why is the Harper government considering waiting up to 5 years before making any plan to limit emissions?

The Conservative minority government is touting a "Green Plan II" which they'll be releasing this fall. The plan is expected to have some very good elements, such as investments in public transportation and regulations to help curb air pollution. But they're missing the most important "green" issue if they refuse to address climate change!

As a young person, I'm pissed off. Our government values oil company profits over my right to a clean & heathly future, and that makes me angry.

Instead of complaining about the economic cost of asking energy companies to reduce their emissions, Harper could be creating new jobs through investments in the renewable energy sector. There are so many possible responses, yet he refuses to look at any of them.

I'm glad that there are so many young people in Canada who are stepping up and taking leadership on climate change action. In fact, 45 youth-based NGOs have formed a Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and are meeting in Toronto this weekend to come up with a collective plan to address government inaction on climate change. I won't be there, but you can bet I'll be at that meeting in spirit!

Love,
Liz