Thursday, October 29th 2009

By Lindsay Jolivet

LINDSAY JOLIVET

INSIDEOUT EDITOR

Hamilton 350 and the residents of Hamilton sought to send a message to the public this past Saturday that climate change is here, now, and it’s time to do something about it.

The environmental group organized Hamilton’s component of the Global Day of Action on Climate Change, an event to “send a message to the federal government as well as people across Canada and around the world that we want serious action on climate change,” according to Don McLean, chair of the Hamilton 350 Committee and director of Environment Hamilton.

Specifically, Hamilton 350’s aim is to inspire the public to contribute to the reduction of atmospheric greenhouse gases to 350 parts per million, which researchers consider a safe level.

Approximately 350 to 400 individuals came out to some or all of the 12 events, lectures and workshops in downtown Hamilton. According to McLean, this made the event “by far the biggest climate change action in the history of the city, and one of the largest ever demonstrations in this city focused on an international issue.” The events included a Climate Festival in Gore Park, a lecture by author Mike Nickerson entitled “Life, Money and Illusion: Living on Earth as if we want to stay,” and a protest at the Federal building.

The Global Day of Action on Climate Change took place in 1700 locations and 140 countries around the world, but McLean felt this event was especially important for Canada. He noted that the federal government has neglected their commitments under the Kyoto protocol, and stated, “Canadians have a special responsibility to correct this, and to make clear to the people of the world that our government is not representative of our concerns and desires.”

McLean was equally concerned about Hamilton’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and opportunity to lower its eco-footprint. “Hamilton has two of the 15 largest point sources of C02 in Canada—our two steel mills,” he said. This, an airport, and the largest port on the Great Lakes make Hamilton a substantial contributor to harmful emissions.

One of the main components of Climate Action was the 3pm protest in front of the federal building. It is unlikely that any government officials were in the building Saturday afternoon, but McLean was confident that the number of people and their enthusiastic support sent the message clearly. The organizers invited all local, provincial and federal elected officials to the event. Of these, three of Hamilton’s federal NDP officials attended, including Chris Charlton, David Christopherson and Wayne Marston. They spoke during the rally and promised to address the group’s concerns in Ottawa.

A number of lectures addressed changes individuals could make to prevent climate change, such as local eating habits and using rainbarrels. However, McLean felt individual actions could only go so far. “If there aren’t laws requiring emission reductions, and incentives such as taxes, then it is unfair to those who take individual action while others carry on polluting,” he said. As such, the message of Saturday’s events was mostly aimed at the federal government.

McLean felt that the evidence supporting climate change was overwhelming and argued for immediate preventative action. “Climate change will not be gradual,” he held, “and there’s growing evidence that it could be catastrophic to human civilization.” He noted the melting of glaciers and the Arctic ice cap and changes in Antarctica.

Although the average global temperature has increased by less than one degree Celsius, McLean felt environmental changes were indicative of the effects of global warming. He also stated that the global increase in droughts, storms and wildfires were probably the result of increased greenhouse gases leading to global warming.

For the members of Hamilton 350, Global Day of Action on Climate Change was an opportunity to address an issue they feel is imperative. McLean expressed his concern openly, stating, “We only have one planet. If we mess it up there’s nowhere else to go.”

Tags: climate change, greenhouse gases