We strike again for climate change

As someone who’s been doing climate activism since I was 14, I’m often asked, “Are you still into that climate stuff?” as if it’s something I would just get over eventually. As if it would be only natural to give up and sink into the inevitability of our collective demise.

And while it is sometimes a tempting path to follow, I refuse it, as do so many others.

So, yes, we’re still striking because we still care and we know that youth climate strikes move the needle towards a world that we can all safely live in.

This past year in Nova Scotia has been a model example of the argument that environmentalists have been making for years. We’ve had fires of mass destruction, deadly flooding, strange weather all over the place and clear signs that this will happen again in 2024.

Nova Scotia isn’t the only place experiencing this either. A deadly hurricane swept Newfoundland, fires have decimated Hawaii, northern Canada is being evacuated and many more tragedies have occurred all over the world. I’ve had to turn off the news because everything that I’ve been imagining, and fearing since I was 14, is happening right in front of me.

These things did not happen by accident. This is human-caused climate change. This is the result of inadequate action on the part of corporations and governments for the last several decades.

You might be wondering what there is to do now, since much of the damage has already been done. Some also say that we, as individuals, and especially as youth, are such a

small part of the greater problem that our voices hardly matter.

But this perspective gets us nowhere. Many parts of the world have it much worse than us, and lack the means by which to stand up for themselves. We owe it to ourselves, as well as to them, to fight for climate justice.

I say climate justice, but what is the difference between climate justice and climate action?

Climate action asks for the government to do its part to limit carbon emissions for the purpose of preserving the lives of the people who vote for them.

Climate justice asks for those in power to do everything in their power for everyone. To shift how we think away from reducing emissions for a quota and toward the social change that needs to be made to address climate change. It means connecting climate change to overarching structures and fighting those structures.

This is a global issue that requires a global solution. I’m driven to continue to fight in the face of political barriers and the tragic results of inaction, by empathy for people, not only here, but all over the world.

When we stand up and speak up, we have an impact. Past strikes have gotten

organization members of the youth School Strike 4 Climate Halifax into meetings with the executives of NS Power and onto the floor of the legislature.

The more people that mobilize around an issue, the more the people in power have the will to take action. So if you care, if you want climate justice enacted in Nova Scotia, come join us on Friday, where we’re striking again, for climate change, still, because climate change still matters. Because we still matter.