Sarah Kerton wants her young son Jude to enjoy the lifestyle she did growing up.
The Thunder Bay woman attended the High ‘n’ Dry event at Hillcrest Park Saturday, a protest on the inaction of all levels of Canadian government on climate change.
About 50 people came to the protest at noon that had people strapped into life vests in canoes and kayaks at the park as part of a worldwide protest. There were more than 800 similar events happening across the globe Saturday.
“I brought Jude along with me today because I care about the future of the environment for not just myself and everyone here today, but for our future generations,” Kerton said.
“I think the federal government’s inaction on climate change is unacceptable and I want to help show that people are paying attention and that people do care,” she added.
Municipalities are responsible for about half of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, said Kerton, adding through the municipal-level of government is the quickest way to effect change.
“Community level changes like bike lanes and different approaches to healthy communities are really important,” she said.
Event organizer Paul Berger said although the protest in Thunder Bay was small, it’s just one piece of a larger demonstration.
“It is a very big and very complex problem but I think if citizens don’t mobilize, if they don’t show our politicians that we’re discontent, then it can just as easily continue to be business as usual,” he said.
Thunder Bay residents may not have climate change in the forefront of their thoughts because the problem isn’t immediate here yet.
“In Thunder Bay what’s happened is we had some nice warm Marches. That doesn’t get people too upset, but the people in the Midwestern U.S. that have had some really heavy tornado seasons, the people in Thailand and China that have been flooded out of their homes, for those people it’s really a lot more real,” Berger said.
Many Canadians do care about the environment and Berger said they have to stand together through events like High ‘n’ Dry in order to force the country’s leaders to take action.
“We want people to stand up with us and say ‘we have to have action. We need to do something. We can’t just wait,’” he said.
