Our ad-hoc steering committee held its third meeting on Sunday February 2nd. It’s great to hear the ideas and progress that each sub-committee is making in determining its roles and objectives.
The committee list is below. Absent members are not named. Please contact us if you would like to help out with a sub-committee or share your thoughts, ideas and resources. Email climateactionmuskoka@gmail.com, with the name of the sub-committee in the subject line.
We’re all ears!Communications: Bet, Sheryl, Tamsen and StevePresenting to Counci and Endorsements: Sue, Len, Diana and LindaTransportation: Arleigh, Robin and GordWaste, Food and Agriculture: Amy, Celine, Christine, Lesley, Susan and Trisha
Built Infrastructure is headed up by Melinda, who was unable to attend.
Weekly Climate Strike Tomorrow — in Gravenhurst and Bracebridge
This is a reminder that weekly climate strikes are happening in Gravenhurst at the Post Officeat the corner of Muskoka Rd. N. and Bay, and in Bracebridge at Memorial Park. We hope you can join us!
Bring
a sign if you can. If not, we can find you one. Come out and meet new
friends who want to talk climate action. Bring a friend or family
member.
And if you’re passing by, honk for climate action!
Congratulations Sue, Len, Nancy and the rest of the crew in Gravenhurst on a successful first week! Here is our webpage with media coverage about CAM’s various activities. If you see a news story about CAM, please let us know and we’ll add it to the page.
Recommended Read of the Week
Our own Bet Smith has written a wonderfully engaging and informative article about Regenerative gardening called The Power of Living Soil. If you ever even thought about gardening, this read will be a real treat. Thanks Bet!
Seeking A Recycling Enthusiast
Do you know
someone who is very into recycling? I mean, knowledgeable enough, and
into it enough to shout it from the rooftop? I’m looking for a lively
inteviewee for Muskoka Drawdown, a new radio show on Hunters Bay Radio. Please contact me to discuss. tamsentillson@gmail.com. Thanks!
Inspirational Quote of the Week
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” ― Andy Warhol
Exciting news! Weekly climate strikes are now happening in Gravenhurst,
starting tomorrow! Friday January 24, from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm at the
Post Office, which is at the corner of Muskoka Rd. N. and Bay.
Bring
a sign if you can. If not, we can find you one. Come out and meet new
friends who are as concerned as you Bring a friend or family member.
If you’re not free this Friday, we will be there every Friday from now on, same time, same location!
Weekly Bracebridge Climate Strikes Continue
Also, congrats to the Bracebridge team, which is coming up on its 18th weekly climate strike since September!
Find us at Memorial Park every Friday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm as well.
We hope you can join us!
Recommended Read of the Week
Sustainable Severn Sound, seven area municipalities, one of which is Georgian Bay Township, has developed the area’s first Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP). View/Download PDF
This
is the closest municipal overview and plan in this region (correct me
if I’m wrong on this, please!) and provides a good snapshot.
Sustainable
Severn Sound says its objective is to educate communities and
municipalities on climate change and ways we can reduce our greenhouse
gas emissions, the use of fossil fuels, lower our
energy consumption, and adapt to our changing climate.
Inspirational Quote of the Week
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
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MUSKOKA — The group Climate Action Muskoka (CAM) is inviting everyone in Muskoka concerned about climate change to get involved.
Inspired by student climate demonstrators in Muskoka and worldwide this past September, CAM is an inclusive, non-partisan group of Muskoka-based citizens with a shared commitment to working together to face the climate crisis.
The group’s broad mandate is to provide community support and work with municipalities to build a more resilient community as Muskoka transitions to a post-carbon future. The group will hold its 18th weekly climate strike in Bracebridge this Friday to raise awareness of the urgency of the issue.
Earlier this month an informal steering committee of about 24 CAM participants held its second meeting to get more specific about what urgent climate action in Muskoka might look like.
Attendees at our January meeting.
“The scope of this crisis can feel overwhelming, and it’s so easy to just tune it out or to worry in isolation,” said Sue McKenzie of Gravenhurst. “But having been at these climate strikes, and seeing the expertise and the momentum in the room at our meetings, it’s clear to me that there’s a whole lot we can do. It’s truly heartening.”
The group plans to approach the District of Muskoka and its six Towns and Townships to support the push for a Climate Emergency declaration. More than a symbolic gesture, a Climate Emergency declaration is a formal acknowledgement of the seriousness of the climate crisis. It includes a commitment by the community to invest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to prioritize community resiliency while doing so. As of October, more than 460 municipal, provincial, and territorial governments across Canada have declared a Climate Emergency.
The group has agreed to form sub-committees to set additional goals and plan actions in the following areas:
Waste
Transportation
Food Security
Building
Water
Communications
Developing presentations to area councils
Gathering community endorsements for the Climate Emergency declaration
If you are interested in working with the group in one or more of these areas or just want further information, please email us at: climateactionmuskoka@gmail.com. State in the subject line which committee you are interested in.
CAM’s regular Fridays For Future climate strikes continue at Bracebridge Memorial Park from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on Fridays. The group is expanding the weekly strikes to Gravenhurst starting this Friday, January 24th at the Post Office from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. Other Muskoka communities are to follow.
Visit us online at www.climateactionmuskoka.org. We’re also on Facebook and Instagram @climateactionmuskoka.
Climate Action Muskoka is expanding its weekly Fridays For Future Climate Strikes (#FFF) to Gravenhurst starting this Friday, Jan 24th, 2020, from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Post Office, located at the intersection of Muskoka Rd. N. and Bay Street.
Bring a sign if you can. If not, we can find you one. Come out and meet new friends who are as concerned as you! Bring a friend or family member! Sue and Len will be there every Friday from now on, same time, same location! If you want further info, please contact her directly. If you don’t have her email, reach her through us at climateactionmuskoka@gmail.com.
Please carpool if you can.
And if you’d like to start up another weekly climate strike in Muskoka, you can coordinate through us.
This is a reminder that we are climate striking tomorrow, Friday January 17, 11:30am to 12:30pm at Memorial Park in Bracebridge. We hope you can join us! Dress warmly! #fridaysforfuture
Objectives & Sub-Committees, Oh My!
Do we call ourselves a steering committee? A lot of expertise and passion in the room on January 12, as this group sat down to talk about the shape we’d like to see Climate Action Muskoka take. So much to do, and Muskoka, we know this community is up for the challenge. We’re creating sub-committees. We’re developing our short- and long-term objectives. We’re working toward weekly climate strikes in other Muskoka communities. United in our mission to work together to face climate change. Contact us for meeting notes. ❤️ ? #climateactionmuskoka. #drawdown #climateaction #resilience #recovery #Muskoka
Muskoka Drawdown — The Radio Show
Organizer Tamsen Tillson (speaking of myself in the third person) was approached by Jeff Carter of Hunters Bay Radio to put together a monthly 22-minute radio show about climate activism on behalf of Climate Action Muskoka.
We’re planning to call it Muskoka Drawdown. Based on the Project Drawdown premise and applying it to Muskoka, it will be a solutions-based exploration of what is being done, who is doing it and how we can all work together to reverse global warming in Muskoka.
I’ll be looking for lots of help! If you are on this mission personally and/or professionally, or you know of someone else who is, and especially if you have radio experience, please contact me. Launch date to be confirmed. Please stay tuned…
Rome wasn’t built in a day. We climate strike at Memorial Park in Bracebridge every Friday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. All are welcome. If you don’t have a sign, we’ll try to find you one. (If you’re making one, “Honk for Climate Action” has been very popular with passers-by!) Bring your family and friends. We hope to see you there!
Carpooling
If you live outside of Bracebridge, please consider carpooling. You can either post on the Climate Action Muskoka Facebook page, or email us at climateactionmuskoka@gmail.com and we’ll see about making some introductions.
Climate Strike Gravenhurst, Huntsville, Dorset….?
All it takes to start a weekly climate strike is for a few passionate people to agree to come together and, as Nike says, Just Do It. If you are from another town in Muskoka and would like to help organize and support a weekly climate strike closer to home, let’s talk! Again, Facebook or email, or heck, face-to-face any Friday.
Inspirational Quote of the Week
“What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” ~Robert H. Schuller
Hi everyone, This is a reminder that we are climate striking tomorrow, Friday January 10, 11:30am to 12:30pm at Memorial Park in Bracebridge. We hope you can join us!
All it takes to start a weekly climate strike is for a few passionate people to agree to come together and, as Nike says, Just Do It. If you are from another town in Muskoka and would like to help organize and support a weekly climate strike closer to home, let’s talk! Again, Facebook or email, or heck, face-to-face any Friday.
Audacious, comprehensive and accessible, this explanation and ranking of the top 100 solutions to reverse climate change is a must-read. You can get it at the Bracebridge Library (though not at the moment as yours truly has it out). There is also a Drawdown website, which is up-to-date. (The book was published in 2017.)
Remember: We Climate Strike Every Friday
Rome wasn’t built in a day. We climate strike at Memorial Park in Bracebridge every Friday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. All are welcome. If you don’t have a sign, we’ll try to find you one. (If you’re making one, “Honk for Climate Action” has been very popular with passers-by!) Bring your family and friends. We hope to see you there!
If you are one of the many concerned about climate change who have been unable to climate strike because of work, the Christmas holidays are a prime opportunity to join us.
Thank you to everyone who was able to come out to the Global—Muskoka—Climate Strike on Friday November 29 at Memorial Park in Bracebridge. Very moving speeches and music, including from 12-yo-activist Cailan Punnewaert, Aaron Rusak of the Muskoka Conservancy, BMLSS student organizer Kelsey Smith, plus an incredible original song by Bet Smith. Thank you to Tom Cowan for hosting and providing the inspiring playlist. (Lots of Spirit of the West…RIP John Mann!)
We were so pleased that Bracebridge Town Councillor Andrew Struthers was able to attend and tell us a bit about some of the great things Muskoka Watershed Council has been doing to prepare for, adapt to and to fight climate change. We’re looking forward to speaking further and supporting that good work.
Regarding numbers: my count was between 60 and 70, though fewer did the actual march down and up Manitoba. More than that passed through and offered their support though, as the 109 additional signatures added to the provincial petition and 99 signatures on the federal petition indicates. (Climate Action Parry Sound, we’ll get those back to you.)
We are back to our regular
climate strike routine, every Friday from 11:30 to 12:30 with one
IMPORTANT CHANGE. Please note that we’re now meeting at MEMORIAL PARK in
Bracebridge. See you tomorrow!
Citizens concerned about the urgent need for action on the climate crisis presented a petition to newly-elected Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison on Tuesday, November 26.
The petition, signed by over 500 Parry Sound-Muskoka constituents, calls for him to work with other parties to begin an immediate transition off fossil fuels with well-paid jobs and leaving no one behind. It calls for a Green New Deal, which basically means decarbonization of the economy. The petition was originally directed to all the federal candidates in Parry Sound-Muskoka.
The group had a very productive conversation with Aitchison about climate action and ways that the federal level of government can collaborate and support municipalities in the transition off fossil fuels. Aitchison expressed his interest in climate action and the need to strengthen federal action on this front.
Len Ring of Gravenhurst expressed his concern that all levels of government did not seem to grasp the urgency of the need for action, citing examples of fires in Australia and California, floods in Europe and the huge one-day loss (11 billion tons) of Greenland ice in August.
“We need to hold the temperature rise to 1.5C as stated by the UN’s IPCC report,” said Ring, “rather than our current trajectory of 3.2C.”
“With each new release of information from the UN, the situation becomes more dire and governments are not taking any kind of action that will meet this catastrophe,” said Janet Libke of Bala. “As a grandmother, I find this particularly disturbing and anxiety causing.”
Sue McKenzie of Gravenhurst discussed the need for long-term funding support for municipalities to help decarbonize local infrastructure, as well as legislation requiring that all spending fits with a low-carbon future. She suggested the need for larger federal subsidies for E-vehicles and support for recharging infrastructure.
Judy Lewis of Huntsville wanted to see increased support for tree-planting programs.
Climate Action Muskoka founder Tamsen Tillson encouraged Aitchison to support and collaborate with the local group and offered the group’s support for anything he wants to do to help the climate.
For further information and to get involved in Climate Action Muskoka, find us on Facebook or our website: www.climateactionmuskoka.org or email us at: climateactionmuskoka@gmail.com
