{"id":96569,"date":"2022-05-23T14:09:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T18:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=96569"},"modified":"2022-05-23T14:53:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T18:53:32","slug":"youth-taking-climate-action-need-institutional-buy-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/youth-taking-climate-action-need-institutional-buy-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth taking climate action need institutional buy-in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Youth in the lower mainland are rising to the challenge of taking action on the climate\u00a0emergency.\u00a0<\/span>Professor Tim Takaro\u00a0professor emeritus\u00a0from Simon Fraser University\u00a0is a member of 'Protect the Planet, stop TMX', who during the global\u00a0pandemic,<\/span>\u00a0\"sat in the trees in Burnaby for 16 months,\" demonstrating against the Transmountain pipeline in the\u00a0area.\u00a0<\/span>\"Of course, that takes a lot of young blood to keep a movement like that. <\/span>The young people really care.\u00a0<\/span>They have more on the line, and they know it.\u00a0<\/span>They also have the inspiration of figures like Greta.\u201d Takaro points to a number of other recent initiatives led by youth that have led to meaningful change in the landscape of\u00a0environmentalism.\u00a0<\/span>\"We have had great success, the Enbridge northern gateway project is dead, the KXL pipeline in the US is dead.\u00a0<\/span>Line 3 is on the ropes. Kinder Morgan left because the project was too hot for them, the Transmountain expansion project was too risky, so we\u2019ve had a lot of\u00a0success,<\/span> and we will have success blocking the Transmountain pipeline as well because it makes no sense, it\u2019s last century\u2019s infrastructure, and the youth know\u00a0this.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

He Highlights one instance where simply the threat of action aimed toward climate change led to significant steps being taken by Simon Fraser University:<\/span>\u00a0\"A divestment campaign that SFU 350 had been working on for about six\u00a0years;<\/span>\u00a0one of the students in 'Protect the Planet, stop TMX' said he didn\u2019t have six years of work, and the university needs to divest\u00a0today.\u00a0<\/span>He threatened a hunger strike that could have been the shortest hunger strike in history<\/span>\u00a0because the university said we will divest the day he started.\" While not all post-secondary institutions have taken the same\u00a0steps,<\/span>\u00a0he's proud that SFU is now \"in the process of full divestment in fossil\u00a0fuels.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

University of the Fraser Valley Alumna Lynn Perrin wanted to accomplish a similar goal in\u00a0Abbotsford.\u00a0<\/span>\"I went to the alumni association and put forward a motion got passed that any of the assets of the alumni be divested from fossil fuel investments, about 3 years\u00a0ago.\u00a0<\/span>Regrettably, it\u2019s the university who holds those funds,<\/span> and they have so far not been convinced to do that.\"Abbotsford environmentalist John Vissers wonders if there may be a silver lining in Russia's ongoing war in\u00a0Ukraine,<\/span>\u00a0and if the geopolitical unrest stemming from a global oil power's international sanctions \"might help spur or somehow speed up the process of transitioning to\u00a0renewables.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

UFV political science professor, Dr. Ron Dart, remains skeptical but does agree.\u00a0<\/span>\"Germany and other states, part of the EU, are trying to sort out what they\u2019re going to do with Russia in terms of\u00a0oil.\u00a0<\/span>Absolutely, if they could seize the moment and realize going down the path we are going is a cliff's\u00a0edge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for how the local picture may develop in the near future, Perrin is quick to point out that as populations continue to age, they also continue to give rise to the new\u00a0generation.\u00a0<\/span>\"We\u2019re going to have a lot of seniors in the next few decades, but don\u2019t forget, those seniors are grandparents of young people, and want them to have a good climate to flourish in.\u00a0<\/span>Hopefully, that will be the impact needed to move our leaders on their lack of action on promises.\"<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Youth in the lower mainland are rising to the challenge of taking action on the climate\u00a0emergency.\u00a0Professor Tim Takaro\u00a0professor emeritus\u00a0from Simon Fraser University\u00a0is a member of ‘Protect the Planet, stop TMX’, who during the global\u00a0pandemic,\u00a0“sat in the trees in Burnaby for 16 months,” demonstrating against the Transmountain pipeline in the\u00a0area.\u00a0“Of course, that takes a lot of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":96573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57,221,222,225],"tags":[6082,13362,14779,3402,487],"radio":[1377],"origine":[1372,280,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96569"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96588,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96569\/revisions\/96588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96569"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=96569"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=96569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}