My own climate journey of following global climate change efforts began over 10 years ago. It is a dream come true to finally participate in a UN Climate conference in person.
2005: It was an undergraduate global politics class in fall 2005, and one specific session on global environmental issues where I learned about the Kyoto Protocol and the efforts to combat carbon pollution and global warming.
Up until that point I mostly thought about local creation care issues as disparate from one another - such as plastic pollution and restoring salmon runs in the Burrard Inlet near where I grew up; following endangered species listings; or thinking about improving public transportation and campus planning to address air pollution. I tackled creation care issues one at a time, and I focused on individual actions- such as participating in shoreline cleanups, volunteering at the salmon hatchery, and driving less.
As I learned more about the causes and impacts of climate change, I realized how far-reaching and wide-ranging it was. Climate change would impact my beloved Burrard Inlet; my university campus; the city I call home; and my country of Canada, not to mention my family and friends around in the world.
2009: I was studying a Masters in Ottawa and participated in my first climate civic march with 350.org. The focus of the campaign was photo documenting climate impacts in our country. Our local chapter marched in downtown Ottawa and took a group picture near Rideau Canal with our skates and winter gear. We were drawing attention to the impacts of climate-change induced warmer winters on a beloved Ottawan festival called Winterlude. As campaign pictures from around the world came into our newsfeeds, I saw with a heaviness in my heart that the stakes in small island developing countries were much higher than warmer winters and melting ice rinks and ice sculptures. That winter, on the eve of the signing of the UN Copenhagen Accord, I recall praying and interceding that all countries would commit to legally binding carbon emissions reduction targets.
2011: During my Transatlantic fellowship in Berlin, Germany, I enrolled in a class called Klimarollenspiel - Global Climate Negotiations simulations. My seminar classmates and I each role-played a country and spent the semester researching our country's environmental and economic profile, climate change positions, and prepared for a three day "mock UN" conference. Our professor worked for the German Ministry of the Environment and was interested in our deliberations, and was eager to test out his hypotheses by injecting proposals into our deliberations to see how we would respond. That class gave me a taste for the complexities of international cooperation on climate change.
2013 to present day: Over the past six years, I've been mobilizing with other Christians in Canada to raise awareness about creation care and climate change. Our west-coast-based ecumenical climate action group, Earthkeepers: Christians for Climate Justice focuses on education, prayer, and civic action. We've occasionally joined efforts with national advocacy campaigns led by Christians, such as Citizens for Public Justice's "Give It Up for the Earth" Lent campaigns to encourage simplifying lifestyles and decreasing our carbon footprints. However, we remain focused on local issues to highlight the importance of local climate action.
Over the years, I haven't lost track of the importance of global efforts, which is why I am honoured to be participating in the Christian Climate Observers Program. Climate change is a complex global problem that requires everyone and I believe it is beyond time for Christians to step into this space, to pray, act, and to lead. During the conference, I will be updating periodically on the blog. I have been researching and identifying side-events of interests, and will likely attend sessions on adaptation and nature-based solutions, in keeping with the spirit of my creation-care-advocacy origins.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "The time is always right to do what is right." It's never too late to start learning about climate change, nor to pray, nor to take action.
One of my hopes for participating in UN COP25 is that it will help me become more effective in broadly communicating that message.
Warm regards,
Monica