Less than a week after the federal election, protesters gathered in Confederation Park in downtown Ottawa on Sept. 24 to raise awareness of climate change as a part of the international Fridays For Future movement.
The march, organized by Fridays for Future Ottawa, Citizens Climate Lobby Ottawa and Below2°C, was a part of the wider movement of youth action against climate change called Fridays For Future which was started by activist Greta Thunberg in August of 2018.
Organizers of the climate strike focused on the voices of young activists, allowing any youth participants a chance to have their voices heard through an open mic at the end of the event.
Vanessa Fiore, an environmental science student at the University of Ottawa and a speaker at the event, pointed to recent climate disasters such as wildfires in Greece and Turkey, flooding in New York City and Hurricane Ida, which devastated Louisiana. Fiore also drew attention to climate disasters in Canada.
“Here in Canada, we’re literally on fire. We’ve seen on the West Coast of Canada, heat waves that we haven’t seen in a century. This has devastated and killed more than a billion seashore animals and has also left certain communities such as Lytton completely devastated. Over 90 per cent of [Lytton] has been burnt down.”
Fiore’s speech, as well as the speeches of other speakers, referenced an August 2021 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which stated that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting global warming close to 1.5°C or 2°C will be beyond reach.
In a press release following the report, the IPCC said that many of the current climate effects were “unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years” and that some “are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.”
Some climate effects mentioned in the report included rapidly increasing global temperatures, rising sea levels, more intense rainfall and flooding, droughts and thawing permafrost.
Protesters called for the federal government to take greater action on climate change. Many speakers and attendees at the event criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government’s response to the climate crisis. Chants such as “Pipeline projects turn them down, keep the carbon underground,” could be heard throughout the protest.
Attendees also had many other policy changes they wanted to see from the newly-elected government. Isabella Lejeune, a Carleton University student, said that she would like to see the government prioritize “finding other renewable resources for us to get energy from, without having to use the same stuff we’ve been using for so many years now.”
“We’re paying attention to what’s going on and we want to see action,” Lejeune said.
Other Carleton students who attended the rally hoped their participation would raise awareness of the issue. Kiyara De Silva, a third-year electrical engineering student at Carleton, said that she wanted the rally to highlight the importance of taking action.
“No action is too small,” De Silva said.
Despite the dire circumstances, many attendees and speakers expressed hope for the future. One of those speakers was Simon Lindsay-Stodart, a high school student and a speaker at the event.
“We have the power to be the heroes that this world needs and I firmly believe that we will be,” Lindsay-Stodart said. “Every single individual has the power to make a difference and be part of this great movement. So join in, get working, and let’s save our home.”
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
