Newsletter day two

ClimateFast 2013

Message from the newsletter editor

Please accept my apologies if you received two newsletters yesterday. After I realized that we had not been sending our newsletter to our 2012 supporters, I sent them the newsletter late in the day. I have now combined the two lists of subscribers so this should not happen again.

Report from ClimateFasters

Rita attended church at Centretown United. She asked members of the congregation to write their MP, visit the website to learn of other ways to support the fast, to come join us on the Hill and help to hold the banner. Afterwards, one of the members of the congregation said she would come to the Hill with her whole family and help hold the banner.

On Parliament Hill, Rita, Margaret and Amelia-Rose battled the rain most of the afternoon. In spite of this they had many good conversations. One woman returned to visit after attending our wet and soggy opening ritual the night before, and brought a friend. As soon as we brought out the banner, a man and his young son became engaged. Our presence is generating real conversation between one generation and the next.

Betty and Frances attended Car free day in Westborough and handed out information. They met an interesting variety of people. Frances was delighted how many people were aware including all ages from 8 years old to elders. They visited Ecology Ottawa and other eco-friendly groups. Frances had a lovely conversation with four preteens who told here they'd write a letter. Lisa Pepper, co-founder of 350.org Ottawa, told them how she had been transformed into an activist in spite of all her better instincts. She had been already guiding the ecoclub of the Elmdale elementary school. Her 10-year old son was a fount of information about Bidder 70 and all the pipeline issues. They talked about getting a letter campaign going amongst the school kids and an article on their website.

Kelowna supports ClimateFast

Last night the Unitarian Fellowship of Kelowna began their Climate Fast honouring, by hosting a showing of the film Revolution by Rob Stewart. A Canadian film with a serious Climate Action message, it was attended by 15 folks and there was a one hour discussion following the film.A number of suggestions came out of the discussion ranging from taking even more concerted effort to stop the pipelines to our West Coast, the arteries of the tar sand carbon monster, and standing in alliance and solidarity with the 1st Nations who resist resource extraction of gas by fracking and the pipeline --tarsand exploitation. Other mentions were stepping away from factory farmed meat, with votes for ethically raised meat if choosing meat at all. There was encouragement from the rising activism shown in the youth...a dearth of youth were present at our showing, but comments were made that the film had been already viewed by many. One fellow suggested that a law should be passed requiring every citizen of our town to view this movie...a long shot yes, but truly a good idea to have it widely shown.

Rebuttal to government assertion on Canada's targets

Here is a statement from a Conservative MP in a reply to a letter from one of our supporters.

In regards to emissions, Canada has the same Green House Gas (GHG) reduction target as the U.S. - a 17 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020. Under current estimations Canada is already halfway to meeting this target. Canada and the U.S. have also moved to implement aggressive fuel efficiency standards.

Our rebuttal

The target of 17% below 2005 levels is much less than what is required to keep temperature rise below the supposedly "safe" level of 2C. California and the European Union (and many other countries) have a target of reducing emissions by 80% of the 1990 levels by 2050. Moreover, the US is on track to meet their 17% target by 2020, whereas if Canada continues on the path we will miss our target by a mile. The following chart prepared by Environment Canada demonstrates how far Canada is from meeting our targets.

The ClimateFast Team

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