What does it mean to be a good ancestor?
Lori Bohn and Virginia Cail from Winnipeg went to Ottawa two weeks ago to find out. They volunteer with Citizens Climate Lobby Canada and were thrilled to gather with 55 others (plus 45 online) to be part of The People’s Ministry of the Future conference.
While in Ottawa, Lori met with her federal Member of Parliament Colin Reynolds to discuss our environment and solutions to keep our planet liveable; just one of the many lobbying meetings that took place.
Virginia had her MP Ben Carr’s parliamentary intern Amy Topshee join her at a breakfast presentation of the climate simulator EN-ROADS. While it takes many seeds to plant this garden of a cleaner world, a price on carbon seems to be the single most effective policy lever. (Try it out yourself to see, for example, how it compares to planting trees, using carbon capture, or cleaning up gas leaks.) Virginia came home more hopeful because she learned there’s now a workplan for countries to phase out oil and gas to go along with the 2015 Paris agreement; it’s the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Conference presenter Tzeporah Berman said “the atmosphere doesn’t care how many solar panels we build. It only cares how many fossil fuel projects we don’t build.” Virginia says “I look forward to seeing an end of the free-to-pollute fossil fuel model in my almost-2 year old granddaughter’s lifetime”.
Lori agreed with the expert panel from Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Generation Squeeze and Canadian Climate Institute, who told us being a good ancestor means cleaning up our mess and not betraying our children. She came home more hopeful because of the clear message from presenters including Catherine McKenna, that a clean environment doesn’t need to be a divisive issue; it benefits us all. Climate has, is and will affect everything: affordability, human rights, health, immigration, infrastructure, biodiversity and social justice. Lori says “let’s use the solutions we have to clean up pollution”.
Lori and Virginia agree with CCL Canada national director’s reaction to this week’s budget: it didn’t quite meet the moment. They are both keen to continue supporting their political representatives at every level to implement and strengthen climate policies that safeguard well-being for future generations.
