Great for adults and kids, the show goes to great lengths to also be entertaining, including recruiting the funny and charming Canadian star Ryan Reynolds to narrate. It also stars: 

• A family of garbage stealing Ninjas
• A bug exterminator who eats crickets, grasshoppers and scorpions
• A class of students who cut C02 by fixing their phones
• A racing driver who never hits the gas
• An activist who turns plastic waste into amazing art
• Competing twins who race across a city from A to B to reduce C02
• A group of tree-planting women in Kenya
• A culinary double dare involving a New Zealand rugby team and a mob of methane-producing sheep

The show also uses great animated images to help viewers wrap their minds around the numbers involved. For example, it shows how much electronic waste is thrown out each year in an equivalent mass of pyramids, or tonnes of carbon emissions in how many Roman colosseums that amount would fill.

Curb Your Carbon can be seen any time for free on CBC’s free streaming app Gem.

The post Inspiration for Earth Day (or any day!) appeared first on Perspective.

April 15
Good Friday

April 17
Easter Sunday

April 22
Earth Day

May 6 – 7
Marriage Preparation Workshop

The Marriage Preparation Course is designed to help participants to learn and grow through online presentations given by professional speakers, online small group discussions with trained facilitators, and couple conversations. All couples are welcome, and participation is not limited by gender, age, or previous marital status. Information and registration forms: ottawa.anglican.ca/marriage-preparation

The next workshop will be in September.

May 26
The Bishop’s Gala

The post Calendar appeared first on Perspective.

The details we behold here are dazzling in their detail and intricacy.  Central to it all is the great brass light fixture called a corona, with electric lights, and decorated with brass maple leaves, fleurs-de-lis and perhaps even a crown—ostensibly based on the ‘corona’ designed by Henry Hobson Richardson as the lighting “fixture central to his conception of the interior of Trinity Church, Boston” at about the same time that the new Christ Church, Ottawa was opening its doors for the first time to receive worshippers.  Never mind that Richardson’s corona was meant to complement the Romanesque Revival design of Trinity Church, whereas Christ Church was Gothic Revival.  For Ottawans the corona fixture at Trinity was the last word in new church design, and they were determined that Christ Church should not be left behind.The photographer had done his homework.  He chose an overcast day so the details of the chancel window donated by Nicholas Sparks’s family would clearly show.  But the stained glass and the corona fixture were by no means the only items in the chancel glowing in this picture.  The very walls were variously stenciled, papered and painted with gleaming gold designs.  The altar rail gleams, being made of solid brass, and when it proved too small for the replacement chancel, it was taken over to Saint Bartholomew’s Church.  A brass processional cross is visible.   

Even the organ pipes were painted with gold highlights.  The words on the archway above the organ pipes, also painted in gold, read, “Sing Unto the Lord: Praise His Name.”  They cannot be misconstrued, unlike those above the main chancel arch (not visible here), “Hear, Thou in Heaven Thy Dwelling Place; And When Thou Hearest, Forgive” which some wags claim was a comment on the quality of music.  Much time had passed since a church organist was dismissed in the late 1870s for playing controversial music—the offending composer being some unheard-of chap named Johann Sebastian Bach.  The frontal on the altar is sumptuous in its intricate detail.  In addition to a brass cross and candlesticks there, we see a pair of menorahs.

Electric light had long since been installed at Christ Church Cathedral by the time this photograph was taken, but the corona when first installed may have been equipped for gaslight, as Christ Church had had gaslight since the 1850s.  Some things never change, however.  In the foreground on the far right we see that the pulpit was located on the right, whereas in most well-organized churches it is on the left hand side.  The Bishop’s seat can barely be made out in the far corner on the left hand side a century before it was moved in the larger replacement chancel from the right hand side back to the left.  With choir pews filling the remainder of the space in the chancel, one can only wonder in this circumscribed space how long the communion section of the service took in what increasingly was becoming recognized as too small a chancel.  What, one may wonder, was the purpose of the row of pegs surrounding the chancel on high?

The Archives collects parish registers, vestry reports, service registers, minutes of groups and committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance records, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters and unusual documents.

The post Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa appeared first on Perspective.

Oh, wait, … the Ottawa Anglican Cursillo Movement does just that! 

You may have heard of Cursillo residential weekends which offer Christian education through brief talks, small group discussions, doodling (yup, you read that right), worship, uplifting music, and precious time to gather with other Christians. Led by a team with both a Lay Rector and two Spiritual Directors, weekends have been curtailed during the pandemic; however, we are hopeful that they will resume in the fall of this year or the spring of 2023. Organization is underway for both a Women’s Weekend and a Men’s Weekend. 

Cursillo offers more than occasional weekend programs. We hold worship services throughout the year, currently over Zoom, which are open to all. (Email precursillo@oacm.ca to get the link to the next event.) With any luck, we’ll again hold outdoor events at the bandshell of Andrew Haydon Park this summer. We also encourage the formation of small groups who meet regularly to discussion how they are living the word of God through study, action, and piety (an often misunderstood word meaning devotion). Talk about keeping your faith alive and relevant.

Cursillo has been a ministry in our diocese for over 40 years and is active all over the world in many Christian denominations. Bishop Shane Parker is a long-time Cursillista who endorses this diocesan ministry. Recently, he shared his uplifting view that 

“Cursillo:

•  offers a unique educational program, a short course in Christianity, that serves both the diocese and parishes. 
• offers a unique Ministry of Service; it serves the diocese by offering education and the power of the Spirit. 
• offers a rich experience of the Holy Spirit working in the community of the church
• promotes lifelong learning and discipleship and raises up leaders.
• energizes people to return to their parishes and jobs and to be Christians in those environments.  
• weekends offer an intense educational and community-building experience of community-in-residence in the same way that a group pilgrimage to the Holy Land does.” 

So, how can your Cursillo ministry support you and your parish? A member of the Secretariat would be pleased to speak with your parish council or other group about it. We don’t offer the only faith development resources in town, but ours are darned good ones. Contact any of us for more information or check out our website at OACM.ca.

— Colleen Mayo, Lay.Director@oacm.ca; Wayne Kauk, Assistant.Lay.Director@oacm.ca; Reve. Jan Staniforth, Spiritual.Director@oacm.ca

The post Cursillo: Supporting parishes and their clergy appeared first on Perspective.

This question has been a strand in all our phone chains, upgraded e-newsletters, livestreams and videos. Yes, it’s about care and affection, concern for anyone who is isolated, and even opportunity. In my experience, clergy are creative community-builders. We have been tied to buidings and in-person liturgies. I accepted that for the rest of my life, Sunday would be about welcoming those who come. I never expected there could be an interruption that would release so much creativity among my clergy colleagues and friends. 

I have been an early-adopter with some ways of connecting and slower with others. There are so many ways to connect. There isn’t enough time or “ram” in my brain to be on top of all of them. I enjoy seeing the different ways parishes have approached this. And I never expected to thrive and even enjoy the challenge of figuring out how best to keep people connected.

Now that we are back in the pews, I am also back to that strand of anxiety that has been there all along. Who is coming back? It may be that my vision is limited because I’m new – I don’t have a mental picture of what St John the Evangelist looked like before the pandemic. I don’t know who is missing. I want to admit my anxiety. In my 30 years of ordination, it looks to me like every Anglican diocese has been in a process of orderly retreat from sacred buildings with worship in every town and neighbourhood. Will the pandemic speed up the whole process of what we are becoming?

During the protest in downtown Ottawa, I walked regularly among the protesters. I wasn’t there to debate anyone and neither were they. It was more a walking meditation about hardened positions talking past each other. Much of what I saw was hard to bear. Fires, children, non-stop horns and fumes. And placards, including many bible quotes. These were not verses I would ever quote. I would not be surprised if someone read these and said, “If that’s what Christianity is about, I will never darken the door of a church!” 

How are we doing at presenting the version of Christianity we practice? And who needs to know? In addition to asking who will be back, I’m wondering about who will be visiting our churches for a first time. We live in a time of anxious questions and not just our own. These days, there are three people that I expect to see in church. 

First, there are the people we already know. Parishioners who are part of the ebb and flow of engagement. Some are drifting away; some are getting more involved. Second, there are people who have left a fundamentalist version of Christianity. It wasn’t working for them anymore, and even though they reject it, they are very much shaped (even unconsciously) by its assumptions and values. Third, there are people of no religious background. They are here because they married into the church community, because they discovered us through some overlapping community event, or because some crisis or trauma has prompted a time of searching. 

They won’t have the same questions about which version of Christianity this is. But now that we are back to in-person gatherings, I am longing to get people together. Their questions might be different, but we might help each other as we tell our stories. We might even create an orientation to the Christianity we practice here. 

I see coming back together as the best opportunity we have to say who we are. Let’s use it well.

The post Getting reacquainted and reaching out appeared first on Perspective.

The night before the convoy arrived in Ottawa, I wept in my living room, with my two little girls fast asleep in the next room, I wept with fear for every woman that is a part of Cornerstone. Anxious that their gender and their vulnerability would create targets on their backs to be revictimized by the misogynist views present in fractions of the occupation. The streets lined with trucks —reminding the woman in need of shelter and safety of the trauma they’ve experienced. Reminding that woman who was human trafficked that she is under surveillance; the woman that fled war-torn area retriggering her PTSD; or the trans woman that her identity is not safe in crowds. The increased misogyny, the fear of walking down the street, even in the daylight; the weaponizing of the women’s safe space and turning the women into prisoners; the cycle of abuse happening on our doorsteps… and those fears becoming a reality in a place she needed reprieve and support.

The most recent events have continued to highlight the undue hardship experienced by women due to the pandemic. Women’s hidden homelessness is much less hidden now due to the pandemic and we are powerless in our ability to meet the new demand for emergency housing. Women being isolated and “locked down” with abusers perpetuates the cycle of violence. Women losing work, autonomy, independence, and years of activism towards equality. And just because we haven’t been through enough; having the convoy invade the one thing we had left to keep us safe—our home. 

Women need to recover, our Cornerstone Community needs to recover, and Ottawa needs to recover. We need to create more space specifically for women and gender-diverse individuals in our community, we need more affordable and supportive housing specifically for women. Community services are the backbone of Ottawa and we need our community to carry the voice and experience of the women to move us into recovery.  

The last two years, and more so the last month, have been nothing less than traumatizing for the women at Cornerstone and utterly exhausting for staff members, who continued to show up for vulnerable women, their families, and their communities throughout this overly exhausted and under-resourced care economy.  It is now time for women to recover, heal, and be heard – and this we cannot do without our community behind us each step of the way. 

This international women’s day, let’s work together to reinvest in our economy through a gender-based lens. That means supporting women-dominated sectors like social services, hospitality, and health care. Let’s rise-up and do the hard work of self-care, in making housing a human right and creating more supportive and affordable housing in our city, and let’s continue to advocate for equality for women and LGBTQ2S+ communities. We need our community to join us in healing and recovery. 

Cornerstone Housing for Women provides emergency shelter and supportive housing for a diversity of women. They support 200 women every day across five housing residences. Their services are offered in an environment that promotes dignity and a sense of hope. Their vision is for every woman to have a safe and affordable home in a community that supports her to reach her full potential. You can find more information on Cornerstone’s work at www.cornerstonewomen.ca or by following them on Instagram @hopecornerstone.

The post Let’s put gender equity and housing at the forefront of our recovery appeared first on Perspective.

Unlike younger adults, connected to their communities through social media and digital tools, many older adults who weren’t tech-savvy were forced to spend their time without any opportunity to see their friends, family and loved ones. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, Trinity Anglican Church, located in the heart of Old Ottawa South, found themselves in quite the predicament. Funding had been granted to host a weekly senior luncheon and speaker series for education and interest, which now was unable to happen because of lockdowns and restrictions.

Wondering what to do instead, the original initiative pivoted, and Seniors in Conversation was created, an online community that would meet every Tuesday morning on Zoom to offer the community free educational conversations with guest speakers and engaging topics, community resources, and an opportunity to connect with one another during isolation.

“Trinity Church has a history of serving the senior population of the parish, many of whom are vulnerable and, in some cases, live a fairly insular life,” said Heather Maclachlan, the lead volunteer at Trinity Anglican Church for Senior’s Programing. 

“Trinity’s volunteers were looking to expand senior opportunities by inviting any seniors living in Old Ottawa South. We wanted a meaningful experience where ideas and information were shared.”

The program was originally intended to serve those living in the Old Ottawa South neighbourhood. Week by week, this shifted as the Reaching Seniors in Old Ottawa South (RSOOS) leadership team received requests from those looking to participate from all around the city—even having participants attend who were based in the West Coast, East Coast, Newfoundland and the USA.

Seniors in Conversation has run for nearly two years and heard from a variety of speakers and topics surrounding mental health, self-care, elder abuse, politics, anti-racism, truth and reconciliation and more. 

“This group has been a lifeline during the long days of isolation,” says Marni Crossley, a regular participant of Seniors in Conversation. “It has become a wonderful gathering of friends who have come together to learn and grow from the wonderful guests who have come to share their area of expertise with us.”

While the RSOOS Leadership team recently announced the initiative would end on April 12, 2022, the success of the program and what it brought to the community will have a lasting impact. 

“This program offered an opportunity for people to connect, to build a new community, to interact with others and to learn and engage in a variety of topics,” said Donna Rourke, the program director. “I think this program had numerous benefits for everyone involved.”

While the pandemic brought many challenges, it also demonstrated the positive effects of connecting our older adults with the digital tools and education needed to become more active online. This success was evident each Tuesday that Seniors in Conversation ran. 

“While we have decided that Seniors in Conversation has a natural end having been developed in response to COVID, I see this kind of program and delivery format as something that will always be relevant to those living in isolation,” says Maclachlan. “Pandemic or not, people need to be inspired and have a community of belonging. This format couldn’t be easier or more accessible.”

To participate and join our community as we continue this program until April 12, 2022, you can register to receive our weekly zoom link by emailing seniors@trinityottawa.ca. To learn more about the program and the upcoming topics and speakers, find us on Facebook at @seniorsinconversation and on Twitter at @RSOOS_Trinity.

From Seniors in Conversation participants

“It has become a routine part of my week, and I’ll be very sorry to see it end in April.” – Tim Boreham

“Seeing others on Zoom as I am living alone has become such a comfort” – Jean Ash

“I love learning, and the well-organized variety of topics and speakers keeps me coming back: history, health, politics, art, epidemiology, travel, music and many more. I am so grateful for this community-oriented learning opportunity.”  – Beth Hughes

“I always left the Zoom time feeling encouraged and — most importantly — less alone in all of this craziness we’re living through.” – Lorna Unger

From the leadership team

As a group, we’d like to express our sincere thanks to the participants and speakers who made this program what it was. We can honestly say that every Tuesday morning we look forward to Seniors in Conversation. It created (and continues to create) a caring community where participants became friends. It has created a safe community where participants freely share concerns. It has created an educational community where resources were provided to those who displayed signs of distress with respect and the utmost privacy. It has been a privilege for us to work with this amazing community, and continues to be such an honour to spend time with these amazing humans. We will miss our time together, but are proud to have been a part of such an amazing initiative that so clearly had a positive impact on the community. 

Seniors in Conversation was created and made possible by the conjoined efforts of Donna Rourke, Heather Maclachlan, Paige Kahkonen, Isabel McFarlane, the Rev. Arran Thorpe, and Archdeacon Mark Whittall as an outreach of Trinity Anglican Church. 

The post Seniors in Conversation winds up as restrictions ebb appeared first on Perspective.

“In spring 2021 the Today for Tomorrow fundraising team raised $7,340 in support of Say Yes! to Kids,” says Jane Scanlon, director of communications and stewardship development for the Diocese of Ottawa. “The campaign, and the Request for Proposals that followed, resulted in the largest one-time investment in youth-focused ministry and outreach the Canadian church has seen: $470,000 to 79 recipients. In the Diocese of Ottawa, seven projects received $33,300.”

In 2022, AFC will partner directly with parishes who want to raise money for their local youth programs. Instead of applying for a grant after the campaign, parish teams will apply up front and be the primary beneficiaries of campaigns they help to champion at the local level. “Any parish wishing to raise money to support ministry and outreach that meets the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of children, youth, and young adults is encouraged to apply,” says Scanlon.

“For all the grant recipients we met in 2021, we know the work to support the church’s champions for youth has only just begun,” explains Dr. Scott Brubacher, executive director, AFC. “In our midst are untold seeds waiting to be sown, green shoots ministries just beginning to take root, and still others, at a mature stage of development. They all need life-giving water to grow where they have been planted so that they can continue to serve their communities and energize our church.”

Brubacher says that energy is needed now more than ever. “As pandemic restrictions lift and churches begin to re-engage with parishioners, it is critical for churches to offer a range of in-real-life opportunities, outside of Sunday morning worship, where young people can reconnect.”

In 2021, Say Yes! to Kids grants supported youth drop-in centres, education and arts enrichment programs, seasonal camps, Indigenous reconciliation projects, weekend retreats, food security programs, and more. “The depth and variety of youth-focused ministry and outreach across the Canadian church—and in the Diocese of Ottawa, which is a leader in youth-focused ministry—is exactly what’s needed in a post-pandemic world,” says Brubacher. 

The AFC Board is committed to creating an abundant revenue stream that helps parishes overcome the financial barriers to launching and sustaining youth-focused ministry. “We have heard from youth leaders describing pre-pandemic budgets as over-stretched or non-existent,” says Brubacher. “For many, getting back to early 2020, where funding was already in short supply, feels impossible.” 

Stressing that these challenges are not a reason to despair but to act, Brubacher believes AFC can “shift the conversation” and lighten the mood with this nationwide P2P campaign. 

In the past decade AFC has awarded more than $1.5 million in youth-focused grants from coast to coast to coast. “We have seen first-hand that local churches know how to show up for young people. They possess the creativity and innovation to imagine more. What they need is a church that is prepared to resource them faithfully and abundantly.” 

Say Yes! to Kids runs from April 1 to June 30. AFC’s 2022 goal is to recruit 50 parish-based fundraising teams across Canada, including five in the Diocese of Ottawa, with an ambitious goal to raise $500,000 nationally. This will build on the 2021 effort which saw 12 diocesan teams raise $110,000. 

To inquire about becoming a fundraising team or supporting one of the teams in the Diocese of Ottawa, please contact Michelle Hauser, Anglican Foundation of Canada for more information. 

The post Diocese of Ottawa to partner with Anglican Foundation in nationwide youth-focused fundraising campaign appeared first on Perspective.

Dean Beth Bretzlaff of Christ Church Cathedral welcomed everyone, and Bishop Shane Parker moderated the discussion and conversation that followed. 

The question posed to each panelist was “Where do you see signs of hope in the fight against climate change?” Here are a few highlights from each of their answers, but the whole rich discussion is posted on the diocesan YouTube channel.

Lynda Collins

Professor at Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability at the University of Ottawa and the author of The Ecological Constitution. 

Collins said, “What gives me hope …is the fact that judges all over the world are waking up and taking action on climate change.” She offered a brief international tour of some of the judgments she sees as most promising:

A 2015 decision by the High Court of Pakistan found that that nation’s failure to adhere to its own climate change plan violated its citizens’ constitutional rights to life and to dignity. The Court ordered every ministry and department of the government to appoint climate champions. The Court also created a climate change commission and supervised activities in a series of 25 further hearings.

In 2018, “the Supreme Court of Colombia broke new ground making legal history, first of all by recognizing the Amazon as a legal person, and second by holding that the government had a constitutional duty to preserve the Amazon, in part due to its central importance in regulating the climate. It noted that the government’s failure to prevent deforestation was violating the rights of future generations.

“In 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada also issued a very progressive decision on federal carbon pricing legislation…. The Court said the only way to address the threat of climate change is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, so the Court upheld the constitutionality of the act and recognized its necessity…”

“We are seeing, in my own view, an unprecedented judicial awakening… Judges have a unique level of power in society… Any time judges place a priority on something, you see it take hold in society.

“Many of the advances that we have made on human rights have been the result of constitutional litigation. I have a little boy who has multiple complex disabilities and he gets to go to school in a fully state funded day school and gets to go to and from school on a wonderful bus …, and a lot of that is the result of human rights litigation specifically on the issue of disabled kids and their rights to education. 

“So it is actually quite crucial in any social movement to get through to judges… To see now that judges in so many different corners of the globe are now taking this on, to me, points to a pivot point in human history. Now I feel like we have a fighting chance because these key players are now on the field instead in the stands.”

Jacob Crane

Citizen of the Tsuut’ina Nation, an entrepreneur and community leader, and the Just Transition Lead for Indigenous Climate Action.

Crane began by sharing that, having recently returned from the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, the question about signs of hope “was a hard topic to address from an Indigenous perspective.” But he added, “I think we’ve been banging at the doors for a couple of hundred years and finally people are starting to listen…. I think that’s powerful to come into a space like this…. It’s nice to be able to speak freely and transfer knowledge,” he said.

At the local level, Crane said, “especially at a grassroots level, conversations are starting where Indigenous people are at the decision-making table. Are we there yet? No. We’re not there yet.” He pointed out that the history of the energy industry, oil and gas, has been the history of “extracting natural resources from Indigenous people’s lands without compensation or involvement….So I think it is really important that we get to those decision making tables.”

It’s ironic, he said, that people who, in the past, didn’t want Indigenous people to be Indigenous and did everything they could to change them are now starting to look to Indigenous peoples to help figure out how to battle climate change.

“We always worked with the land. You are talking about a people who never had trash. They utilized everything from the animal, everything had a purpose, and when we would camp in an area, once that area started to show signs of fatigue, we would move camp to a new place. … We would give the land a chance to heal itself… You want to save the planet? Look to Indigenous people, put them at the forefront of these movements and let’s go. Let’s listen to how they would do things.”

As Just Transition Lead for Indigenous Climate Action, he explained that his focus is helping Indigenous communities prepare to transition to using renewable energy.

When asked for some examples of projects, Crane said, “In Alberta, within my own community, there are electric charging stations solar panels that are powering a community centre,…

“There is a camp in northern Ontario.. and they are solarizing a land-based learning centre for Indigenous youth.

“I know there’s 2,500 Indigenous renewable energy projects,” he said, in Canada. 

Stewart Elgie 

Professor of law and economics at the University of Ottawa, director of the university’s interdisciplinary Institute for the Environment, the founder and chair of the green think tank Smart Prosperity, as well as Eco-Justice, Canada’s largest environmental law organization.

Elgie began by describing the challenge ahead: “In its simplest essence, we’re trying to take the energy system that unleashed the Industrial Revolution, and in many ways ushered in a level of wealth and well-being for much of the world that we had never seen before, and we’re trying to replace it in 20 or 30 years…. That is the scale of the problem but let me tell you why I am hopeful about it,” he said. 

“In 20 or 30 years, assuming we made the transition to a low carbon economy, it’s actually not going to be that disruptive. Your life will not look that much different. You will still flick a switch on the wall and electricity will come out. It will just be generated by clean sources not coal or gas. You will probably still get in a vehicle, if you have a vehicle, and you’ll drive, but under the hood, it will be powered by electricity rather than gas….People will still get up and go to work and have jobs, but instead of making fossil fuel products like gas-powered cars, they will be making electric vehicles; they will be mining for the minerals needed for solar panels and electric vehicle batteries. On the surface, our lives will not be that different. Under the hood, a fundamental transformation in the energy drivers of our economy.”

Five or 10 years ago, this sounded like science fiction, he said, but people can see these changes happening around them now. “Five to 10% of the vehicles on the road are electric, more if you live in Quebec or British Columbia. By 2030, you will not be able to buy a gas-powered car.”

“In fact, I don’t think there’s much of an issue about whether we can build a low carbon economy, most of these technologies are there today,” he said. ‘The challenge is to accelerate the pace of innovation and drive down the costs.. …We’re starting to do that. The cost of electric vehicle batteries has gone down 90% in the last decade.“

Change is scary for everyone, he acknowledged. “The problem is the world is going to move to a low carbon economy whether Canada likes it or not. …Our only decision is ‘Are we going to be among the leaders in that or the trailers’?”

“It’s in our interest as country to be among the leaders in this change. Just to crystalize that we can do this and we are starting doing this, let me give you a few Canadian examples of success stories,” Elgie said. 

“Aluminum is one of the most carbon intensive energy systems in the world. To make that metal takes a ton of energy and powered by fossil fuels. They’ve been working on a technology to make carbon-free aluminum for a few years, and it is now just been adopted, and the first plant in the world is in eastern Quebec, the Elysis plant, co-funded by Apple, which buys a lot of aluminum, the government of Canada, Quebec, Rio Tinto and Alcoa. We are now the place in the world making carbon free aluminum…

“We’ve just invested billions of dollars to convert some of the car manufacturing plants in Ontario to make electric vehicles…

“They’ve recently announced that the Six Nations in Ontario are going to be home to one of the world’s largest clean energy storage systems, the Oneida Project, so the First Nations are partnering with a company called NRStor to be a leader in energy storage, to store that wind and solar power so we can use it when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.”

“If we put our minds to it, we can do this across the economy.”

Robert Gifford 

Professor of psychology and environmental studies at the University of Victoria

“For the environmental psychologist, it all starts with the 7.7 billion people making decisions about things… You can’t sell an electric car if people don’t want to buy it,” Gifford began. “It comes back, for the environmental psychologist, to each and every person making a choice about their daily lives. That’s where I see the hope is at the individual level, when I see people making changes in their lives, overcoming some of what I’ve called the dragons of inaction, which are the compelling reasons why we don’t do things we should do. 

“One of the main dragons of inaction is a sense of “I can’t do it. I’m only one person.” People say, ‘I don’t have any power.’ My typical response to people is ‘Does that mean you don’t believe in voting either? Because one votes not going to change anything, or 99% of the time it won’t. And the person usually says ‘Well, yes of course I believe in voting.’ It’s the same thing with climate change. We have to do it one person at a time around the world.”

Though change may happen one person at a time, that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone, Gifford said. “For me, step one is to do something like we are doing here, join with others.” Whether it is talking with family, neighbours, or people in climate action groups, he said, “There’s nothing that creates more hope than joining up with somebody else.

“I see each of us as our own source of hope because we can change. I could change more. You could probably change more. What we have to do is to find ways to work with other people, in our household, all the way up to the federal government…. That’s really the key, I think, is this sense of working together.” 

The post Signs of hope in the fight against climate change appeared first on Perspective.