Sustainabiliteens, other youth to protest for climate action Sept. 24

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — High school students fighting for climate justice across Metro Vancouver will be demanding action from the federal government at Canada Place on the morning of Sept. 24.

Sustainabiliteens says they’re united by the urgency they feel to stop climate catastrophe, and by a shared vision of exercising their agency to create a more just and sustainable world. They will be joined by Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, and other organizations with similar goals as they strike to demand intersectional climate justice.

The point of the strike is to bring together young people who are “sick of seeing governments make empty promises and go another couple years without taking any meaningful action,” says Amber Leung, a member of Sustainabiliteens.

The group’s top priorities leading up to this federal election are stopping fossil fuel expansion, implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations, and moving towards a green economy while recovering from the pandemic, explains Leung.

“We can’t have any more investment in fossil fuels if we want to maintain a livable planet for all, and so far the main parties haven’t taken hard stances on this,” she says, adding that youth are demanding clean drinking water for everyone, including Indigenous people who have had to deal with water quality advisories in Canada.

“Indigenous people are on the frontlines of this crisis, which is why it’s so important for them to be at the front of this climate conversation and the policies that we talked about implementing that fight it,” says Leung.

“We want the government to take this opportunity after COVID to establish a better world in terms of environment, in terms of climate, in terms of relationships with Indigenous people, because COVID has shown us that we have the ability to respond swiftly to such a huge emergency.”

The group’s website says youth growing up now not only inherited an environmental collapse, but also the cause of that collapse: “a broken worldview where the profit of corporations is valued over peoples’ lives.”

Leung says Canadian youth deserve more commitment to climate action by party leaders. She and her peers find it “disappointing” to “see plans that come up that aren’t good enough in terms of fossil fuels, subsidies, and emission targets.”

“There are people of all ages who have seen this happen again and again around them in their environment. They’re seeing these wildfires that get worse every year, and the hear waves that are killing people in their province, and they’re just wondering where the action is,” she says.

“Climate hasn’t really been the top priority because of the pandemic, and we really want to send a message to the government that whatever peace period they had on climate during the pandemic isn’t going to last forever, and they’re going to be pressured more than ever to take adequate action on climate change because we are running out of time.”

They are striking after the election rather than before to show that climate change is a global issue, not just a Canadian one. Their strike on Sept. 24 is in solidarity with climate action around the world.

Organizers will be there before 11:00 am to rope off a space for kids and set up activities like sidewalk chalk, a wishing tree, and poster-making stations. The event will be family-friendly.

Sustainabiliteens staff encourage attendees to bring their own sign and send them photos of their kids holding it, along with a few sentences about what they would like the new government to do to protect youth and their future.