The youth have risen, and so have we: WWF-Canada joins the Global Climate Strike

This Friday Sept. 27th, at the end of a week marked by the eye-opening UN Climate Action Summit and IPCC climate report on melting ice and rising seas, a Global Climate Strike is happening in 150 countries. There are protests planned across Canada, and WWF-Canada staff will be marching everywhere we have offices—complete with Panda mascots protesting in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and St. John’s. As Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen who inspired this climate-strike movement, just told world leaders at the UN: “Right here, right now is where we draw the line.”

Alongside our international World Wildlife Fund colleagues in their home countries, we are climate-striking to support Canada’s youth, mobilize our supporters, demand climate action from our governments, and spread the word about nature-based solutions to the climate crisis.

Our science-based organization rarely takes to the streets. But WWF-Canada is marching to build momentum around urgency to act on climate and highlight the importance of healthy natural systems as part of the solution.

As demonstrated by WWF-Canada’s Wildlife Protection Assessment, Canada has a unique opportunity to mitigate and adapt to climate change — and fight the concurrent crisis of biodiversity loss — by protecting and expanding our natural carbon sinks such as forests, wetlands and grasslands. With Canada heating at twice the global rate, and the Canadian Arctic at three times, reducing emissions and increasing resilience requires a radical transformation of our land use as well as decarbonizing our economy.

Megan Leslie, president and CEO: “WWF-Canada will be marching because climate change is an emergency and our leaders need to start acting like it. It’s time for grown-ups to join the world’s student strikers and demand climate action now — before it’s too late.”

Mary MacDonald, Senior VP and chief conservation officer: “The climate crisis is a fight for our future, and nature is our most important ally. Nature-based solutions reduce emissions by capturing carbon in forests, grasslands and wetlands that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere. Healthy ecosystems, in many areas made stronger by Indigenous knowledge, also support resilience to climate impacts that have already begun such flooding, fires, extreme weather and desertification. We can, we must and at WWF Canada we will fight the climate crisis with nature.”

WWF-Canada’s climate-strike spokespeople and locations:
Montreal: Megan Leslie, President and CEO and Sophie Paradis, Director, Quebec region
Toronto: Mary MacDonald, Senior VP and Chief Conservation Officer
Halifax: Sigrid Kuehnemund, VP, Oceans
Woodstock, NB: Simon Mitchell, Senior Specialist, Saint John River
St. John’s: Victoria Neville, Senior Specialist, Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries
Ottawa: Mark Brooks, Senior Specialist, Arctic Oil & Gas
Victoria: Kim Dunn, Manager, National Oceans Governance

About WWF-Canada’s other climate change efforts:

The Last Ice Area: We’ve spent over a decade advocating to protect the region north of Nunavut — where climate scientists project sea ice will persist the longest — as a climate-adaption refuge for ice-dependent species and Inuit communities that rely on them. Recent announcements of interim protection for Tuvaijuittuq and permanent protection for Tallurutiup Imanga are part of our efforts to establish a network of Marine Protected Areas in the High Arctic.

Arctic Renewables: WWF’s just-released renewable energy feasibility study shows the path forward for Nunavut to begin transitioning from diesel fuel to renewables.

Community Climate Adaptation: Our Wolostoq/Saint John River work brings stakeholders together to restore the watershed and reduce the increasing impacts of climate-related flooding. Broad partnerships along with Indigenous knowledge and technical analysis drive the success of this project and could provide important understanding for carrying similar work out in other watersheds.

About World Wildlife Fund Canada
WWF-Canada creates solutions to the environmental challenges that matter most for Canadians. We work in places that are unique and ecologically important, so that nature, wildlife and people thrive together. Because we are all wildlife. For more information, visit wwfcastg.wwf.ca.

For further information, or to book interviews, please contact:
Joshua Ostroff, senior editorial specialist, jostroff@wwfcanada.org, 416-529-2967
Joy D’Souza, senior communications specialist, jdsouza@wwfcanada.org, 647-264-6776