NOV 1 - FASTING AT U.S. CONSULATE, 425 University Ave., (east side) FROM 9 – 3
Torontonians are fasting for the Climate for the first full day of COP 26, and are calling for meaningful climate action and an end to fossil fuel expansion. Activists urge Canada to join the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance initiated by Costa Rica and Denmark.
Activists from ClimateFast will fast for 24 hours in solidarity with the Fast for the Climate taking place at COP and around the world. They will be on-site at 475 University Ave, and others will be participating from home.
Dewan Afzal, a Bangladeshi-Canadian, will be fasting from his home in Brampton. “I know just how important it is that we cut our emissions in Canada. My home country is at risk of massive flooding and dislocation. It is already happening. It is time to act.”
‘We are at very dangerous levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, we are at a tipping point, and we need to end all expansion of oil and gas – we need to keep it in the ground’ said Lyn Adamson, Co-Chair of ClimateFast, fasting at the US consulate.
‘We are now at 420 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere – the last time it was this high was more than a million years ago when global sea level was 16 m higher than today. The safe level could be 350 ppm”
“We are expressing our solidarity with activists at COP. The fast and vigil is also in solidarity with 5 US hunger strikers for climate, now in their 13th day of striking in Washington DC. These youth should not have to starve for their future.” Said Lyn Adamson. “What’s true is this: there are people starving all over the world from extreme weather, drought and dislocation … and this will only get worse. The price of inaction is a future more horrible than we can contemplate. We don’t accept this and urge everyone to stand up and take on the fossil fuel companies now, for our future.”
The global Fast for the Climate was initiated in 2013 by Yeb Sano, the Philippines negotiator, fasted to bring awareness of the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan as the same moment the COP was meeting and achieving little progress. The activists are calling for actions in line with a 1.5 degree rise. To achieve that requires no further expansion of oil and gas, and end to fossil fuel subsidies, and a just transition to a renewables energy future.
ClimateFast calls on the government of Canada to join the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. Today.