Across Canada, teams came out to celebrate Earth Day in many different ways, from a creek clean-up in Burnaby to joining in community events in Montreal, London, and Ottawa. The four moms who staffed the FOK table in London reported back that they had lots of opportunities to talk to parents and families about their climate concerns, they helped passersby write postcards to their MPs and discussed electric school buses, emissions cap legislations, supporting biodiversity, and how banks fund fossil fuels and what we can do about it. We're hoping it's the beginning of a new For Our Kids team in London.
Earth Day 2023
When Earth Day first started more than 50 years ago, it was largely a white-led movement that failed to recognize the realities of environmental racism and the connections with the civil rights movement, or to support Black and radicalized communities. Increasingly, Earth Day is an opportunity to look more closely at intersectionality in climate change and environmental crises, and to challenge ourselves as allies and co-conspirators.
While it's sometimes tempting to be cynical about Earth Day, it's an important opportunity to connect with each other and the natural world, to help educate our communities, and to challenge the status quo. (Check out more on what you can do to support Bill C-226, the act to end environmental racism and for climate justice, from our friends at CAPE).