In partnership with Climate Change Newmarket-Aurora, NewmarketToday brings you a regular series of columns aimed at creating awareness and engaging our community to take action on climate change.
Our collective humanity is facing the most existential crisis in recent history. With the past decade of consecutive record-breaking global average temperatures, increasing frequency and intensity of hurricanes, typhoons and floods for some, and expanding areas impacted by wildfire, drought and heat waves for others, it’s difficult to ignore the ecological crisis we’re witnessing, even if we may not be directly impacted.
Besides the immediate destruction these weather impacts have on our habitats and diversity of plants and animal species we share this planet with, we are transgressing beyond planetary boundaries for which the consequences are calamitous, and are likely irreversible on the timescale of our modern civilization. And it’s having its effects on the important freshwater and agricultural systems we need to sustain us.
But despite these significant challenges and the diverse feelings they may illicit, from denial to despair, all hope is not lost, and it should not be. Because it’s not the planet we need to save … it’s us, our civil society and everything we value and love in life on this precious planet.
After decades of research and testimony from climate scientists and countless Conference of the Parties, the climate crisis has made it into our collective consciousness. From individuals to nation states, we are undergoing an energy revolution on a global scale. Renewable energy has become the cheapest it has ever been and will continue to be the energy solution of choice for a sustainable future as fossil fuel counterparts deplete, become increasingly difficult to extract, and their continued use is opposed in the court of public opinion.
Climate Action Newmarket-Aurora is an organized group of citizens of diverse backgrounds and life experiences, actively advocating for the changes we need here in the community, region, province and nation as a whole, and I encourage you to come as you are, with your life experiences and accumulated knowledge, to share and learn how you can contribute, however big or small, because every bit matters, despite how insignificant it may seem.
Humanity has innovated for millennia to solve problems and we now live in a remarkable era, with the precious opportunity to change the dire course we are headed toward. We need to act collaboratively, purposefully, and with a greater sense of urgency, to avoid the worst possible outcomes before us now, and more importantly, for our future generations. I cannot think of a more worthwhile pursuit in life, for the betterment of humanity and our legacy.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead
Inspired by the international organization Project Drawdown, Climate Action Newmarket-Aurora seeks to engage citizens, institutions, and policymakers in actionable and measurable solutions to stop catastrophic climate change as quickly, safely and equitably as possible. You can contact them at [email protected], and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
