Seniors In Action

“While Fires Rage, Premier Ford Announces Program to Burn More Wood”

by David Robertson – SCAN

I am sitting here under a smoke advisory. I am in southern Ontario, about 200 kilometres from the nearest forest fire but the air is hazy, there is smoke in every breath, our windows are closed and the air is being filtered. I can only imagine what it is like for those on the front lines, living in the danger zones or working as firefighters trying to restrain the inferno.

June 23, 2023 By Rebecca Weigand – Chatelaine

“A grandma’s job is to bring balance. We look to Grandmother Moon for guidance, because she wants to prepare us, get us ready spiritually. That’s what we need to bring back.” Renee Thomas-Hill, or Grandmother Renee as she is often called, is a Haudenosaunee elder. She’s one of several grandmothers who talked with me about their work on climate and environmental justice. – more here

64 year old climate activist faces ten years in jail

June 22, 2023 – From Bill McKibben – The Crucial Years

A 64 year old climate activist faces ten years in jail for sending a letter pretending to cancel a New Zealand oil and gas conference. She wrote to the oil industry reps preparing for their junket that:

“We are deeply concerned at the rapidly accelerating social and political changes engulfing us, highlighted by many of our own children preparing to strike from school to demand a safe future…Furthermore, despite our best efforts at secrecy, activists have discovered this year’s conference and were yet again planning noise and disruption. But there is a silver lining to all of this: we will not be there to listen to that incessant chanting.”

Any oil exec who was taken in by this should probably be sentenced for stupidity, and it is high time that governments stop over-charging peaceful protesters. I mean, here is a picture of this desperate criminal:

Man announces he will quit drinking by 2050

A Sydney man has set an ambitious target to phase out his alcohol consumption within the next 29 years, as part of an impressive plan to improve his health.

The program will see Greg Taylor, 73, continue to drink as normal for the foreseeable future, before reducing consumption in 2049 when he turns 101. He has assured friends it will not affect his drinking plans in the short or medium term.

Taylor said it was important not to rush the switch to non-alcoholic beverages. “It’s not realistic to transition to zero alcohol overnight. This requires a steady, phased approach where nothing changes for at least two decades,” he said, adding that he may need to make additional investments in beer consumption in the short term, to make sure no night out is worse off.

Taylor will also be able to bring forward drinking credits earned from the days he hasn’t drunk over the past forty years, meaning the actual end date for consumption may actually be 2060.

To assist with the transition, Taylor has bought a second beer fridge which he describes as the ‘capture and storage’ method.

We are seniors compelled to urgent action.
Our seniors’ climate action group will inform, and mobilize seniors in an effort to prevent more climate catastrophes. We recognize that climate action is also a demand for social justice and economic transformation – the opportunity, as well as the need, to address racism and economic inequities. We know that Canada was founded on the occupation/ invasion/ colonization of Indigenous lands. We are in this for the sake of future generations and the survival of life on the planet.

Time is running out. Read More…

Connecting Seniors to Climate Action

Many seniors are already involved in climate action through personal action and as members of groups. They retrofit their homes, donate to environmental groups, volunteer with a local or national organization and vote for candidates who promote climate action.

We want to strengthen the actions of seniors already involved and encourage more seniors to join us through the creation of a network.

Have a look at how seniors in many groups are confronting the climate crisis – Here

Webcast: Canada’s Climate Record: Broken Promises, Bright Future? Video links

Full recording:

Canada’s Climate Record: Broken Promises, Bright Future? November 7, 2021 – YouTube

And in the USA

Bill McKibben launches ‘Third Act’ to rally older Americans around climate change

Sept 2, 2021 – By Emma Cotton – VTDigger

It’s time for baby boomers and members of the Silent Generation to organize against climate change, according to veteran environmental activist and writer Bill McKibben.

The Ripton resident is known for founding the grassroots environmental organization 350.org with a group of Middlebury College students in 2008 and writing one of the first books about climate change for a general audience, “The End of Nature,” published in 1989.

Now, he’s stepping away from his weekly New Yorker column to dedicate more time to a new organization, called Third Act, aimed at engaging activists over age 60.