by Jane Reddington
I feel like I woke up one day and realized that something had to be done, only this time it was not about learning the latest Covid restrictions, wearing a mask or using hand sanitizer. This was more pressing, and after a call from a friend I’ve always known to be a climate activist, I decided yes, it’s time.
It’s time for me to find my voice around climate change and join a new group that’s just formed in Nanaimo-Ladysmith called For Our Kids. We are four mothers, four women who decided it’s time to stop watching and listening. Now is the time to band together and do something to help save the environment. Real, concrete actions that mean we are holding people accountable. People we elected. People that sit in our current government and have a too little, too late approach.
I’ve never been an activist for anything. I have in my own quiet way tried to speak out in different situations, trying to make my voice count in every day life. But that’s not enough anymore. Climate action is different. Climate action is not just about me and doing the right thing, it’s about my children and their children and having a planet to live on that will be habitable.
It’s about deciding that now is the time to act, now is the time to say “Yes, I will stand up for climate change because it’s too important not to.”
This year we’ve all been bombarded by living through a pandemic. Something that has affected us each in very tangible ways, and something that has irrevocably changed how we relate to each other and the world.
But what if each of us woke up, after we’ve been to the vaccine centres and had our jab, and said to each other, what more can we do for our world? If we each took the time to educate ourselves on what our local, municipal and federal governments are doing or not doing, wouldn’t we feel like we did something? Because our children are going to ask and we will be able to say we took action.
That’s why I joined with my friends to form the Nanaimo-Ladysmith For Our Kids group. And we’d like you to join us too, as we work together and collaborate to inform ourselves, educate each other and make change around us, and have a few laughs along the way.
I think it means saying, “Yes, I want a better future for the children in my life. I want a better future for the planet. I want to care and I’m willing to make the time to help this planet that is in dire need of our attention.”
Our government needs to hear from each of us. The more of us that stand together and send a message that we are not going to take no for an answer, the stronger our voice will be. We must act now and use our voices to make sure our governments meet their net-zero emission pledges. We must act now to say that 2030 is too late, and by 2050 it will be over. We must tell our banks that we don’t support their continued investments in the fossil fuel industry. We must work together to educate our neighbors, friends, and we must do it now.
Jane Reddington is an author and writer who lives with her husband and two teenagers on Gabriola Island. She is passionate about gardening, learning French and the environment. She is a member of For Our Kids Nanaimo/Ladysmith and can be contacted at [email protected]
