Fridays for Future to Participate in Global Climate Strike!
March planned for September 15, 2023, in St. John’s, as students demand an end to fossil fuels
Fridays for Future St. John’s invites all concerned citizens, activists, students, parents, and community leaders to join the fight against climate change by striking on Friday, September 15, 2023. Participants will meet at the MUN clocktower at 1 p.m., where they will march to the Confederation Building until 3 p.m.. ‘The march will be part of a Global Climate Strike, in which youth are organizing worldwide, on every continent, joining the fight to protect our planet for future generations. This landmark event aims to send a powerful message to provincial and federal governments that there is a need for urgent and immediate climate action,’ said spokespersons Frankie Shoemaker and Rachel Sutton.
Fridays for Future St. John’s is asking the following of policy and decision makers and university administrators:
Memorial University must divest from accepting money from fossil fuel sectors.
RBC must be moved off campus as the fifth largest funder of fossil fuel projects in the world.
No further public money should be invested in fossil fuel projects in Newfoundland and Labrador, especially the Bay du Nord project. This includes money for exploration.
There must be a rapid and equitable phase out of the use of fossil fuels in the province, with particular attention paid to what this will mean for vulnerable communities.
There must be massive investment in community owned renewable projects, centring Indigenous communities. There should be no discussion of diesel powered electricity in Newfoundland and Labrador at this point in human history.
More and better public transit, including in rural areas, while moving away from car-based infrastructure. We must reconsider how we plan municipalities and create denser urban areas, while planning for the worst impacts of climate change.
There must be reparations paid for harms caused to Indigenous and global south communities. Canada must live up to its loss and damage commitments financially, as well as ensuring global compliance.
Polluters must pay for the damage they have caused. With record oil profits, big oil needs to pay for its own decommissioning of projects.
‘Anything less is unacceptable,’ said Shoemaker and Sutton.
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador continues to insist that the oil and gas industry in the province is important for jobs and the economy. However, research shows that investment in green energy provides a net increase of five jobs per million dollars of investment. Furthermore, research published in Nature Energy has shown that once peak oil is achieved, high-cost oil jurisdictions, such as this province, will be the first to be pushed out of global oil markets. ‘Depending on oil revenue is a very risky financial strategy for the financial future of the province, particularly as citizens realize that climate change is already here and it is very dangerous right now. This is not an economical industry,’ says Shoemaker.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has identified modeling that shows the potential loss of significant parts of British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces to rising sea levels and flooding. ‘It is time to accept that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador will suffer some of the worst impacts of climate change and that insurance will not be there to cover us as we lose our homes, as many of our citizens in Port aux Basques have already discovered. Even the official opposition is failing to act on this and are presenting no solutions of their own as 20,000 Canadians are fleeing their homes in Yellowknife,’ says Sutton.
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has continued to aggressively pursue oil and gas development with the Bay du Nord project, despite advice from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that no new oil should be developed, in order to achieve net zero by 2050. The most recent advice from scientists is that 60% of existing oil projects will need to be decommissioned early for a chance at 1.5 degrees celsius of global warming. ‘This is the only path to a livable planet,’ says Shoemaker.
‘The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador gave $50 million to Exxon Mobil this year for new oil exploration, after cutting the operating grant at Memorial University of Newfoundland, resulting in an unprecedented 275% increase in tuition. Research in 2019 showed that 39% of students at MUN were food insecure before this increase,’ says Shoemaker.
In May of 2022, the governing Liberals and Progressive Conservative official opposition all voted against a resolution asking for a just transition off fossil fuels in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly. ‘This is no longer acceptable to us as the youth of this province. Premier Andrew Furey has continued to insist that ‘lower carbon oil’ is a solution, going so far as to promote it at an international climate conference. In 2019 11,000 scientists across the world declared a climate emergency and advised us that the world must ‘replace fossil fuels with low-carbon renewables,’ says Shoemaker.
‘As the generation that will have to live on this planet the longest, we demand urgent action now. It’s time for G20 governments to stop working for corporations and return to working for citizens,’ said Sutton.
About Climate Change An area of Canada, the size of New York State, has alredy burned this summer at 1.2 degrees celsius of global warming. The Canadian North is warming at 3 times the global average, according to the Government of Canada’s own emissions reduction plan. The planet no longer has the carbon budget for new oil developments and our people can no longer afford to continue subsidizing big oil. Global fossil fuel subsidies increased to $7 trillion in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund, resulting in $13 million in subsidies for fossil fuels a minute.
A Harvard University study has found that fossil fuels are responsible for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. Oxfam has found that the top 1 percent of income earners are responsible for 50 percent of global emissions and that the most vulnerable populations suffer the worst impacts of climate change. This is a result of colonial economic patterns that established the economic system on this planet, which is increasingly making the planet unlivable for future generations. G20 governments are not even trying to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations. It is time for politicians to stop committing ecocide and get on the right side of history.
About Fridays for Future Swedish activist Greta Thunberg founded the Fridays for Future movement in 2018 by striking from school every Friday to protest government inaction surrounding climate change. The movement grew exponentially in 2018 and 2019, with an estimated cumulative total of 17 million protesting across 234 countries. Though the movement began with high school students, adults and community members showed immense support for the demonstrations and joined the marches to demand action from governments worldwide. In St. John’s, over 8000 protestors marched up Prince Philip Dr towards the Confederation Building in 2019, demanding action from Dwight Ball’s Liberal government.
CONTACT INFORMATION: Email: fridaysforfuturestjohns@gmail.com
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