A made-in-Canada version of an environmental movement gaining traction abroad has landed in Newmarket and Aurora, and you are invited to share your ideas on what a ‘green new deal’ for the country would look like.
The Pact for a Green New Deal, as its known, is a non-partisan coalition of citizens concerned about climate change who share a passion to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect biodiversity, rise to the challenges that climate change increasingly presents, and create more than one million jobs in the process.
More than 150 town halls have so far been organized by local groups across the country to draw citizens in on the discussion and share ideas for what they would like to see Canada do to address climate change.
Here at home, emerging environmental group Drawdown Newmarket-Aurora will host the Pact for a Green New Deal town hall on Wednesday, May 29 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Old Town Hall auditorium, 460 Botsford St.
Drawdown Newmarket-Aurora was founded by residents Teresa Porter and Fran Bazos after the pair attended a few sessions of the Drawdown Richmond Hill group. Both group’s activities are based on the Paul Hawken book of the same name, Drawdown - The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, which includes contributions from 70 scientists and experts from 22 countries.
Drawdown features 100 ideas that individuals can easily do at home, work, or in their communities that help to remove emissions from the atmosphere.
“We’re just a loose collection of a core group of about eight people who read the book and thought, ‘Wow, we could try some of these things,” Porter said. “So we gathered some people together to work on different aspects of the book that we can do here in the community, such as reduce the use of plastic bags, look after the water and the trees, particularly, and a lot of environmental things that would help lower emissions in Newmarket.”
Porter said that while many people read bad news about climate change and are concerned about its threats, they’re not sure what they can do personally to help.
“They think what difference does it make if they stop driving their car, they’re just one person, it makes no difference,” she said. “We think if everybody did something it would make a big difference right across the board. So, we’re looking for ways we can encourage people to make small changes gradually, and it will make a big difference.”
Drawdown is the point at which levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and then steadily decline, ultimately reversing global warming, according to Project Drawdown, a leading research organization that aims to shift the larger global conversation on climate change from doom and gloom to a sense of opportunity, possibility, and hope for the future.
Drawdown Newmarket-Aurora co-founder Fran Bazos has read Drawdown cover to cover, and said the 100 different solutions to reverse global warming are fascinating and easy for anyone to understand.
“Trees are just gigantic for me,” Bazos said of one of her most pressing environmental concerns. “The way they’re just razing trees for development, developers go in and chop down trees by the dozens. Trees matter because when you start cutting down trees, you degrade the actual earth, making it unstable.”
In addition to preserving trees and forests, Bazos said there’s no reason an outright ban can’t be placed on plastics, a destructive force in the world’s oceans.
“We have to be bold in terms of climate change, we have to make big changes and the governments have to stop pussy-footing around,” Bazos added. “By promoting Drawdown and this Green New Deal and putting emphasis on the environment, we hope that there will be this groundswell of public opinion that informs our government and let’s them know it matters to us, that it needs to be the No. 1 priority.”
Personally, Bazos is conscious of her environmental footprint and said she constantly strives to do better.
“I drive a small car, my daughter drives a plug-in hybrid, and I walk and carpool when I can,” she said. “We reduce waste, use the food we buy and don’t throw stuff out. We’re conscious of how much energy we use around the house. I’m careful about what I do, but there’s people who are so much better than me and others who are worse, but if everybody starts to alter their behaviour a bit, it’s going to make a huge difference.”
The urgency of the need to reverse global warming spurred Bazos into action. She recalls driving her 10-year-old grandson to school one week and he told her he wanted to be a scientist when he grows up and invent a car that doesn’t use fossil fuels, but rather floats on air.
“But with climate change, he says he might not be around to grow up. That’s what our children are living with. When a 10-year-old is living in fear of survival, that makes me sick to my stomach,” Bazos said.
The Pact for a Green New Deal for Canada rests on two fundamental principles, local town hall organizers say:
- It must meet the demands of Indigenous knowledge and science and cut Canada's emissions in half in 11 years, while protecting cultural and biological diversity.
- It must leave no one behind, and build a better present and future for all of us.
“Our town hall workshop is about bringing people together to share their ideas, discuss what their concerns are and get a feeling for what Canadians would like to do about climate change,” Porter added. “We thought let’s try that for a start, to get our feet wet.”
For more information on Drawdown Newmarket-Aurora, visit them on Facebook.
