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March for climate justice strikes close to home in Newmarket

Newmarkettoday.ca
Nov. 29, 2019
Kim Champion

With a climate strike sign-making party behind them, supporters of Fridays for the Future - Newmarket-Aurora are ready to hit local streets Friday, Nov. 29 as part of a global strike for climate justice inspired by young activist Greta Thunberg.

Friday's global climate strikes in Newmarket and Aurora were planned to remind residents to 'Think Globally, Act Locally',--with an invitation to join communities across the globe in achieving impact on a global scale.

"We're here to encourage family, friends and neighbours to join us in taking collective action to reduce local GHG emissions," spokesperson Jon Aston said.

Since Oct. 4, Fridays for the Future friends have demonstrated outside Newmarket’s town hall in support of political action on climate change, as well as at Newmarket-Aurora MPP Christine Elliott’s Yonge Street constituency office in protest over provincial cuts to public health, paramedic services, education, and more.

This Friday will see the group hold demonstrations outside both Newmarket and Aurora’s town halls, in advance of the 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) taking place in Madrid, Spain Dec. 2 to 13, 2019.

“We can no longer afford to wait idly by for government--at any level--to take anything less than immediate, drastic action on climate change,” organizer Jon Aston said.

Aston said that everyone now knows there is a climate emergency, and if communities everywhere don't work together to drastically reduce global emissions, the planet will quickly become uninhabitable.

"Despite the increasingly dire climate emergency we face globally, however, ours is a messsage of hope," he said.

The Special Report published October 2018 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change served as a wake-up call to millions of people worldwide. As the reality continues to sink in, people from all walks of life are becoming climate activists every day.

'We understand the science and know that urgent action is required," said Aston.

"While governments have done far too little in the 22 years since the Kyoto protocol was signed, millions of climate activists across the world are bringing political pressure to bear," he said. "Consumers are making more sustainable choices, investors are divesting from fossil fuels, and engineers in Australia are turning their backs on extraction projects."

Locally, Drawdown Newmarket-Aurora has connected with hundreds of activists and played an important role in the Town of Aurora's recent declaration of a climate emergency.

"We're making progress," Aston said.

Fridays for the Future - Toronto/GTA estimates about 50,000 people marched for climate justice on Sept. 27, 2019 outside Queen’s Park in Toronto. It, too, has planned a global climate strike for Nov. 29 beginning with a rally at 11:30 a.m. outside Queen’s Park, followed by a march at noon.

Here’s where Fridays for the Future - Newmarket-Aurora will be on Friday, Nov. 29:

Newmarket

 Aurora