Newmarket-Aurora climate group gives book on mobilizing for emergency to local council members

'Stay engaged, imagine what is possible'

Yorkregion.com
July 22, 2021
Aileen Zangouei

A group of environmental activists from Newmarket, Aurora, delivered several copies of the book "A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency" to Newmarket council in hopes that more action will be taken to stop catastrophic climate change.

Project Drawdown consists of members from a wide variety of age groups who are passionate about environmental reform, and were the group behind having Newmarket council declare a climate emergency.

Melanie Issett, 24, spoke with Yorkregion.com on behalf of Project Drawdown, and said that they feel since the declaration in 2020, not enough has been done by the town in the face of the climate emergency.

Issett, who is a recent graduate of Western University and obtained her bachelor's degree with honours in environmental science, works as a research assistant studying the intersection of economics, politics and the environment. During her free time, she is focused on influencing local politicians to take actionable change on the climate emergency.

Project Drawdown's latest method to persuade local officials that more needed to be done was inspired by an individual in Kingston who purchased 338 copies of the book "A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency" and sent them to members of Parliament. Project Drawdown decided to influence politicians on a local scale and delivered copies of the book, written by Seth Klein, to council.

According to the author's website, the book was published in September 2020, and explores how we can align politics and the economy with what science says must be done to address the climate crisis.

In his book, "Klein brings an original and uniquely hopeful take to this challenge. The book is structured around lessons from the Second World War -- the last time Canada faced an existential threat ... Canada's wartime experience, Klein contends, provides an inspirational reminder that we have done this before," his website reads.

Issett has been a part of Project Drawdown since 2020, one year after its inception, which was based off of inspiration from the international Project Drawdown -- the world's leading resource for climate solutions, and a not-for-profit that seeks to help the world reach drawdown, which is the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.

Issett and her team have also taken on that mission and want to engage citizens, institutions and policy-makers to take actionable and measurable solutions to stop catastrophic climate change, as quickly, safely and equitably as possible.

"We hope to provide inspiration, information and a potential blueprint for the municipal government to take greater action on the climate emergency, and to use their position to pressure all levels of government here in Canada to act with greater urgency and a deep understanding of what is at stake," Issett said.

For Issett, these initiatives have personal meaning on how it may impact her life, and the younger generations to come.

"The projections of what may be coming in the next ten years and what's already happening around the world, this has major implications for my own future as well as many people in marginalized communities and locations in the world that will experience the effects of climate change and are already experiencing it, far more intensely already today," she said.

The advice Issett offered to people who want to step up and help address climate change in their daily lives is "stay engaged, imagine what is possible, and vote with your actions for what you want the future to look like," she said.