Greta and George, the best short video of 2019 Dec 31, 2019
“Vote for people that defend nature. Share this video. Talk about this. All around the world there are amazing movements fighting for nature. Join them!”
Today in Focus talked to the climate change activist Greta Thunberg in March about the campaign of school strikes she started. As part of a series looking back at some of our favourite episodes of 2019, she told our environment editor Jonathan Watts how it all began
This episode was originally released on 14 March 2019
This
week we return to some of our favourite episodes of the year. Greta
Thunberg spoke to Today in Focus in March, before her transatlantic
voyage to address the UN.
One day in mid-2018, Greta Thunberg skipped school and went to sit outside the Swedish parliament with a homemade banner that read skolstrejk för klimatet
or “school strike for climate”. By March 2019, her sign had been
translated into dozens of languages and her school strike protest had
spread to more than 70 countries.
She told the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, how it all began and what she made of the attention she generated.
RISE for CLIMATE JUSTICE! Sept 27th, 2019 / Waterloo, Ontario – People from across the region gathered today at Waterloo Town Square, in the largest environmental gathering the region has ever seen, to call for immediate and urgent action on climate change. The 5000+ people here joined more than 7 million participants in over 160 countries around the world who took to the streets this week to make it clear that we need urgent and ambitious action TODAY, as part of the Global Climate Strike (www.globalclimatestrike.net)
Today’s strike brought together indigenous people, students, parents, and workers, all calling for one single thing … the right to a livable future! In a year that has seen new heat records, the strongest hurricanes, intense rainfall, and rapid melting of the ice caps. In a year when Canada declared a climate emergency and bought an oil pipeline. In a year that has seen the Amazon rainforest, often known as the lungs of the Earth, burning for cattle. In this year we have seen the largest climate strikes ever recorded.
In this year the students and young people have taken to the streets to stand up for their future. And today the Waterloo Region community and the global community gathered to stand up with the students to demand action!
Over the past year, we have had several scientific reports, including the IPCC SR1.5, the WMO Global Climate in 2015-2019, and the IPCC SR on Ocean and Cryosphere, that have presented the stark impacts of climate change and the action needed to avoid the worst of these impacts. The science is clear we need ambitious action today!
We URGENTLY NEED all levels of government to commit to a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030, leading to net-zero emissions by 2050, if we are going to be secure a livable planet for future generations, and deliver a safe climate future for all life on earth.
For those of us that are new to the problem of the Climate Emergency or are looking for good solid reporting Democracy Now! is a unique news broadcast that diverges in nature of the typical corporate media. DN!’s hour long broadcast is well worth watching in its entirety. Below are some segments on the Climate Emergency from the last few weeks:
WATERLOO REGION — Beethoven’s music has inspired activists around the
world, most famously when students in the Tiananmen Square uprising
played his masterpiece “Ninth Symphony” as a way to build hope and
solidarity.
Next Friday, the “Ode to Joy” from that symphony will ring out
over Waterloo Public Square in what organizers say will be the biggest
climate strike so far in Waterloo Region.
It will start off low, with just one instrument,
and gradually swell as other professional musicians, members of local
choirs, and hundreds of others join in.
It will “just kind of build,” the way organizers hope momentum
for climate action will build, both in the region and around the world,
said Mo Markham, one of the organizers of the local climate strike.
Earlier monthly climate strikes have attracted anywhere from 100
to 300 people, but the one on Friday, Sept. 27, at the public square,
held as part of worldwide strikes for Climate Week, could draw 1,000 or
more, said Meg Rutter Walker of Fridays for Future Waterloo Region.
“There’s a lot of energy and a lot of excitement,” Rutter Walker said.
BEYOND CRISIS is a story of hope for a rapidly changing
world: a meditative call to action that explores what it means to be
living in this new era of climate change, as told by over fifty diverse
voices from across Canada, the U.S. and beyond.
Monday, Sept 23rd, 7:00 – 9pm — Wilmot’s Climate EmergencyDeclaration Vote. Lets fill the council chambers! (see facebook page for Details), 60 Snyder’s Road West, Baden, Ontario (streetview, map).
Join us at Wilmot Township Council’s next meeting where
Councillors will be voting on a Climate Emergency declaration for the
Township of Wilmot! The declaration also includes a carbon budget, which
will keep the township accountable and on track to meet its emission
goals.
The Climate Emergency motion will likely be early on the
agenda, so please be sure to arrive on time (as close to 7:00 pm as
possible).
We want to fill the chambers in support of this motion, so invite everyone you know!!
Tuesday Sept 24th, 7-9pm — Woolwich Climate Emergency Declaration vote, This is one step towards a Regional vote October 9th – let’s fill the council chambers in support! (see facebook page for Details), 24 Church St W, Elmira, Ontario (streetview, map).
Join us at Woolwich Township Council’s next meeting where Councillors will be voting on a Climate Emergency declaration for the Township of Woolwich!
The declaration also includes a carbon budget, which will keep the
township accountable and on track to meet its emission goals.
The
Climate Emergency motion will likely be early on the agenda, so please
be sure to arrive on time (as close to 7:00 pm as possible).
We want to fill the chambers in support of this motion, so invite everyone you know!!
Countries from all around the world are having or planing their own Climate Strikes. We in Waterloo Region (Ontario, Canada) will be having our strike on the 27th of September (2019). What’s interesting is that we are seeing interest in what we are doing, on our web site, from all over the world: