Hello,

I recently returned from a semester in India, eating bananas and riding in rickshaws. Now that I’m back in Canada with a computer I’m trying to drop a line to the many connections I had the pleasure of making over the past year and a half in the process of making Fill The Hill a reality.

First, I would like to extend another sincere thank you for all of your support along the journey. I am fully aware how absurd it must have seemed to hop on board behind a raving 19-year-old and pull together thousands with almost zero resources. I should hope that in my life I will give my energy and trust so willingly as you have. You were essential to creating the improbable.

Second, I wish to introduce you to one of the offshoots of the C-Day movement. Cheryl McNamara of our communications team, and a small team of collaborators have been working hard since October to create the online community called Climate Response (www.climateresponse.ca). This is a citizens’ effort to raise the voice of reason. We all know that comment boards and shoddy journalism often trivialize or deny climate change and it can be very tempting to just ignore the nonsense. However, unless we can shift the comments and public opinion in favour of the truth, we will struggle to achieve serious change. Therefore, Climate Response is a platform where contributors can find resources and share their efforts to take back the playground from deniers. Cheryl is recruiting members (especially students), so please do check it out and share with friends. Grassroots is a continual source of hope and satisfaction.

Third, good news regarding climate change can be hard to come by. If nothing else, remember that we are all still in it for the long haul. Let’s keep our heads high, minds clear, and hands busy. Speaking of which, I’m sure we are all excited for 350.org’s Global Work Party on 10/10/10.

Thanks again!

Yours in action,

Gracen

I try not to politicize the word citizenship. Perhaps this is not a good idea because political boundaries are sort of inherent in the definition of a citizen. BUT, perhaps it is a great idea because then the concept of citizenship isn’t lost to people who think politics blows chunks.

To me, being an active citizen is just doing what needs to be done. This can be seen on any scale and allows for few excuses or alibis. For example, I have a recent anecdote on a very micro scale. Our subletters left us a lovely array of unwanted articles upon their departure. These articles were mostly hanging out in the shed and included a very nice comforter and wool jacket. As my housemates and I cleaned through this mess, and lifted said comforter and jacket, I discovered what appeared to be the vestiges of a small rat population. After recovering from the shock of the findings, I was able to level my head and contemplate a course of action.

Understanding that the rat house needed to be bagged and disposed of, and also understanding that my housemates were uncomfortable with the infestation, I accepted that I should just do it. Thank you, Nike. In fact, I dare say the whole Gracen vs. Rats episode was rather exhilarating. I see this as active citizenship and opportunities to act present themselves everywhere. Rancid compost needs to be dealt with? I’ll do it. Tap in the washroom at school is leaking? I’ll tell Maintenance. Dead mouse needs to be removed from the house? Call me.

Do I have an affinity for all things gross? No. However, I find it highly satisfying to do what needs to be done, especially when no one else will do it. Rats are my skydiving. This is my citizenship.

Unless I am mistaken, David [Noble] probably had intended that I talk about my involvement in C-Day: Fill The Hill as opposed to my frequent encounters with rodents. The philosophy still applies. As a citizen of this country and this planet, I saw that something (/A LOT) needed to be done about Canada’s largely unchecked GHG emissions and lack of political will to challenge that reality. Therefore, I started a national citizens’ mobilization campaign to show our Parliament that Canada supports fair, ambitious, and binding climate policy. Do I like getting very little sleep and volunteering myself full-time for over nine months when I need to pay for (and attend) school? No more than I like picking up rat-infested blankets with a copper pipe (also left in our shed). Yet, there is an incomparable sense of satisfaction and peace and adrenaline that comes with knowing that you are doing what needs to be done.

Those are my thoughts on active citizenship. I hope that you will join me on The Hill. I promise, I washed my hands after cleaning the shed.

In solidarity,

Gracen

A friend of mine had me over for dinner this week in her first post-university apartment. It’s a wonderful one-bedroom on an interesting street in a great part of town. As is typical of the post-move phase, the place is full of unpacked boxes and furniture belonging to past tenants. The knives and forks do not yet have a home. But as we dined on her mother’s thanksgiving leftovers, it was clear that my friend was pleased with her new space and with her new set of keys had entered a new phase of life.

With my twenty-second birthday approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about what coming age means for my generation. We don’t often get a clear delineation of adulthood in Canada. Members of the Jewish faith hold bar and bat mitzvahs (“one to whom the commandments apply”) at age thirteen. Tamils celebrate Manjal Neerattu Vizha, a proceeding which teaches girls the dos and don’ts of upcoming years and sees their feet painted with tumeric water. But for those without a traditional faith community, the turbulent and exciting passage to adulthood is not always marked. Surely, voting with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other is not our rite of passage.

And yet, we are coming of age. Or we need to be. As Paul Hawken said in a recent commencement address, “You are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating.” A tall order. Particularly when the ceremonies which teach us the rules of the game are not available. We need to expect more from ourselves than getting a job and finding a place to live comfortably. Now adulthood comes with the additional understanding that we will support ourselves and our families while shouldering the burden of achieving justice and environmental sustainability.

In facing up to these challenges, some are reviving old traditions or creating new ones which better reflect the expectations of modern adulthood. An acquaintance recently attended a coming of age ceremony which used drumming, singing and fire lighting to great effect. The participating youth then shared their hopes and expectations for themselves in front of a group before setting off on a solo camping journey.

Children in the Christian faith enter the age of accountability, when they are old enough to understand the moral consequences of their actions. For some of us, the age of accountability is welcomed by standing up for what you believe in. Gracen Johnson, a twenty-year-old University of Guelph student is coming of age, leading thousands to Fill the Hill on October 24th to call for fair, ambitious and binding emissions targets in Ottawa and Copenhagen. She is taking on a level of accountability not witnessed in our formally elected leaders; those from whom, arguably, she should be drawing wisdom and inspiration.

As I navigate the stormy seas of self-awareness and the job search, I find myself looking to the mentors and parents who have guided me along the way. These inspiring people now seem to offer encouragement rather than direction. Their sudden aloofness has allowed me to see that coming of age is a process of turning inward for guidance, of valuing one’s intuitive understanding. The last few years have been ones of rejecting the adolescent voice of self-doubt and learning to trust the quieter thoughts of self-efficacy. It’s a challenge – but no one said becoming an adult would be easy.

Coming of age isn’t a pre-requisite for being a grown up. If I could turn off the ceaseless stream of greater expectations, I might be able to embrace a less responsible version of adulthood. As it turns out, this is easier said than done. Instead, I’m envisioning my own coming of age which borrows from the best of old and new traditions. Like my friend, I’m looking forward to self-sufficiency and independence. Like the Tamils, I’m trying to spell out the rules of the game that I can live by. Like Gracen, I’ve got my eyes on a defining moment of truth. The absence of a formal ritual creates opportunities for us to seek our own path. However we mark it, what’s important is that we celebrate the new era and embrace a new realm of challenge, responsibility and fulfillment.

We’re coming of age in a time when the questions are complex and the answers are shifting. We can look to our mentors for wisdom, but they won’t be able to give us a step-by-step plan for taking on tomorrow. It is as new to them as it is to us. Instead, we learn to trust ourselves, to cherish our values and to live our lives in the best way we know how. This is a coming of age. I look forward to sharing the journey.

Every great truth is fought with a great resistance. When we were told that we couldn’t fall off the Earth we insisted that we could, and when we were told that we weren’t the centre of the Universe we insisted that we were. When we were first told there were tiny little creatures that could make us sick, we laughed and refused to wash our hands. Today, some of us still refute the history of our own biology, as if evolution is something to be ashamed of.

It seems almost part of human nature, history we are doomed to repeat. Anytime science makes us reflect on ourselves, the issue becomes less of a scientific debate than a psychological struggle to deny what we don’t want to believe. Despite the abundance of evidence, we build controversy to mask the fact that what we are really lacking is the strength to conquer our fears, face facts and adapt to another scientific reality.

So here we are, right on cue, with climate change: One more unpleasant issue that reminds us that we are not the centre of the Universe and we have to stop acting like we are. This time around however, it’s different. Science has caught up to us whether we’re ready to accept it or not. We’re running out of time.

Climate change is not somebody else’s problem, sometime down the road – it’s everybody’s problem, right now, and if you think it’s only an environmental problem – think again. Climate change is not simply about penguins and polar bears, it’s about a global economy addicted to oil and the soldiers who die for it. It’s about farmers around the world loosing their crops and their livelihoods to either too much or too little rain. It’s about oceans that have become so acidic that they can no longer stock the fish we need to eat or the algae we need to breathe.

Climate change is more than the mild winters and rainy summers, it’s the increase in droughts, floods and hurricanes we keep pretending are acts of God when the responsibility lies elsewhere. It’s about the spread of malaria carrying mosquitoes in parts of Africa that were once too cold for their migration.

Climate change is all these things. If you can’t see the connections, then you haven’t been paying close enough attention. Destructive environmental behaviour has dangerous and long-term repercussions. We no longer have the luxury of ignoring this painfully obvious logic because it is costing us too much.

None of us are immune to the consequences of climate change, however it’s those who least contribute to it that will suffer the most. Unless we acknowledge this, social justice will forever be lost in the growing poverty gap. We can’t draw borders on the global ecosystem any more than we can pretend that what affects you does not affect me. We are responsible not just to ourselves and not just to our children, but to the rest of the world.

We are past the point of talking about climate change as if it were only an environmental issue. This is about progress and change, it’s about an intellectual evolution. There is no other species on Earth working this hard to insure their own extinction – why are we?

The time has come for a technological and economic revolution. Countries around the world have invested responsibly in clean energy while we continue to play in the tar sands. Governments around the world have employed thousands in expanding clean energy sectors, while our government bickers about the logistics of insuring the unemployed, and mumbles tired excuses for bad decisions.

We have the tools we need for our own salvation – why do we cling to our caveman ways? Our leaders told us for years we couldn’t afford green technology because it would destroy the economy. Well it collapsed anyway, and not because of change – but because of lack thereof – and the money we supposedly didn’t have to invest in a sustainable future was spent on bailing out a hopeless one.

As a society, we are ready to indebt ourselves for life to buy a house, but we won’t invest in our home for the sake of protecting life – why? The real inconvenient truth is that we are way past due for a cultural revolution and the really ugly truth is that we are endangering all life on Earth, and for some reason, we are choosing to do so.

All revolutions start in the mind, and they spread by word of mouth. So grab your friends and get down to Parliament Hill on October 24, 2009. Canadians are standing in solidarity with the rest of the world for a peaceful demonstration of a powerful message because the fight against climate change is a fight for everything that’s worth saving.

Our leaders will never learn to listen unless we learn to speak up – so come join us October 24rth and let’s make them listen.

For more on how climate change is impacting at risk communities and Oxfam’s campaign to address this issue, click here.

Google has built a site where you “explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet Earth and find out about possible solutions for adaptation and mitigation, ahead of the UN’s climate conference in Copenhagen in December.” Visit: Climate change in Google Earth

This blog is part of Blog Action Day – www.blogactionday.org