Young Canadians staged 15 events across the country yesterday to protest the extraction of fossil fuels which, when burned, contribute to climate change. This followed a weekend summit in the eastern city of Halifax which drew 500 students to “learn, develop their skills and build the movement for climate, environmental and social justice.” This so-called PowerShift event was one of several summits that have been held in different locations.
Activists dubbed April 1st “Fossil Fools’ Day,” a parody of April Fools’ Day when people traditionally play pranks. At different locations they set up mock pipelines, drilling rigs, and other props to illustrate their opposition to oil, gas, and coal extraction.
Protesting Canada’s ‘ridiculous…fossil fuel expansion’
Cameron Fenton, director of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition said they were organized “to specifically talk about the ridiculous nature of fossil fuel expansion currently going on and currently planned for Canada with the expansion of massive projects like the tar sands (in western Canada) and fracking (fracturing rock to extract gas)all across eastern Canada.”
So-called divestment groups planned some of the events. These groups involve students at 35 campuses across Canada organized to pressure their universities to divest their investments of fossil fuels companies
Divestment already occurring
Momentum is growing, says Fenton, not just among these groups. He notes a Toronto church has divested itself of such investments and that labour unions are looking at doing the same within their pension funds.
Although the events were timed to coincide with the release of the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fenton says its dire warnings came as no surprise to the students. He says young Canadians already accept that climate change is happening and that it is a threat to human security.
‘We have to be bolder’
“If we’re going to maintain a safe climate we have to acknowledge that right now, especially in a country like Canada that is very, very dependent on growing its fossil fuel industry to push the economic growth agenda of our government, that that has to be challenged.”
The IPCC report, Fenton says, simply spurs young activist on. “We have to be bolder. We have to be more active. We have to take action more and we really have to push for a very rapid transition off of fossil fuels.”
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