Climate Change Friday’s For Futures Protest in Calgary

After Swedish climate activist Greta Thunburg’s speech at the UN last week, climate change is on the minds of every Calgarian that went to the climate strike Friday September 20th 2019 at noon.

The City of Calgary is taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emission while also managing energy use, which is all part of the Climate Resilience Strategy, but Calgarians are not convinced that the city’s actions are enough.

Joanna Allard was at the strike talking about what Calgarians can do to help with climate change or climate action. “Climate change is a real and pressing problem. Its man made and we need to acknowledge that problem and move forward to address it right away,” said Allard.

“Calgarians are not quite understanding of the reality of climate change the way that people in British Columba are. It’s on fire all the time now, and it is a real problem. I think that awareness needs to be raised here in Calgary,” said Allard.

Others are also looking at are our current election coming up in October, as well as Alberta premier Jason Kenney, and how he and others in government could be doing more.

Activist and parent, Natasha Welsh has just those concerns and questions. “I think that in this upcoming election for Canada that we need to look at electing leaders who will act now,” said Welsh.

“Alberta just keeps electing people who just don’t care about Climate change and they’re in complete denial. I think that it is a big thing, it’s about electing leaders who will act,” said Welsh.

“Alberta is a province with so many days of sunshine, so we should be looking at solar. Yet we have a premier that has stop subsidizing solar panels,” said Welsh.

Thunburg gave a powerful speech at the UN a week before the climate strike. Thunburg’s speech gave many support and power to come to the strike.

Lexi Whyle talked about Greta Thunburg’s speech and how she has influenced her.

“I love her. I know that she is only 16 but she is my idol right now,” said Whyle.

“I also have Asperger’s syndrome and I also believe it is a gift because it’s made me incredibly passionate like her,” said Whyle.

“What we need to take from her speech is that she is not the one who is going to do the change, we as adults need to take that from her. She’s asking and pleading us to take this burden of leadership away from her. We as adults need to change and need to smarten up,” said Whyle

According to the City of Calgary’s climate resilience strategy, the city will create a plan to lessen the impacts of climate change as well as give direction on how to best manage energy resources.

The Climate Program will research and communicate with different corporations to ensure that City Council is all up to date on information that will be discussed for future plans and actions.