Alarmed by the Climate Crisis, the Suzuki Elders are calling on all Canadian Seniors to demonstrate growing concern about the impacts of climate change.
Erlene Woollard, a Suzuki Elder and co-leader of the Seniors’ Day planning group, said that the purpose of the call to action is to help create a liveable future for our children and grandchildren. “We need faster and better climate action now,” she said. “Later is too late!”
Almost one in five Canadians are seniors, over 65. “Seniors have outsized political, economic, and social power,” said Woollard. “And they vote.”
October 1 this year is both the International Day of Older Persons and Canada’s National Seniors Day. The hope is to get seniors to take some action in every community across the nation to show how they feel about rising temperatures, wildfires, heat domes, flood and storms along with droughts.
“Action on climate must be intergenerational,” Wollard said. “We’re all in this together.”
She said that the seniors groups think the transition to renewable power and clean energy needs to happen quickly, and will be asking banks, pension funds, governments and individuals to divest from fossil fuel developers and producers, and invest instead in proven renewable energy methods.
The day of action is being led by five environmental organization led by seniors: the Suzuki Elders, which is part of the David Suzuki Foundation, with headquarters in Vancouver; Grandmothers Act to Saves the Planet (GASP) of Ottawa, Climate Action for Lifelong Learners, based in Toronto; Climate Legacy, which has members across Canada; and Seniors for Action Now (SCAN!) based in Ontario.
More information is available on a website: http://seniorsforclimate.org
JOIN a May 28 Webinar to help organize the Canada-wide Seniors Climate Action Day by going here.
The co-leaders can be emailed at erlene_wollard@telus.net or carolelchristopher@gmail.com
Here is a poster for the Webinar
THAT looks like a very exciting project – Thanks for posting it here.