John Haugen had to give up his reputation right away wildfire he arrived.
She filled the baskets belonging to her and her mother, the people of Nlaka’pamux and members of Lytton First Nation, an area that crosses 56 parks near the intersection of the mighty Fraser and Thompson rivers in British Columbia.
Haugen did not have enough time to catch fire before burning down his house at the end of June.
“You will never see them again because the grass makers they made are all gone,” said Haugen, Lytton First Nation’s vice president. “It’s like a legacy from the past that some people put in museums – but this was part of a strong family and family experience.”
The mountainous region around Lytton, located about 200 miles[300 km]from Vancouver in the western part of Canada in BC, became a symbol of the crisis this summer, as it disrupted global warming this summer.
Heat in Lytton rose to 49.6 C on June 29 as a hot dome – a climate that catches and suppresses warm air, causing temperatures to rise – spread to the western United States and Canada.
Houses and businesses were engulfed in flames, and the village of Lytton, home to 250 people, was completely destroyed.
“It was very impressive,” said David Miller, a former mayor of Toronto who is now the chief negotiator for the global dialogue at C40 Cities, a climate control group with 97 cities around the world.
“Seeing the town just disappear, it’s sad and dangerous and what comes out after Lytton? Recently International Panel on Climate Change reports he says we need to take action in the next few years to reduce emissions by mid-2030, otherwise we cannot stop this. ”
The big issue of the campaign
The message appears to have reached Canadian political leaders, who are now at the peak of the a election campaign how climate change principles are important.
All major parties have expressed their views on how Canada can meet its requirements in the Paris Accord, which seeks to bring the global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius in this century.
And nearly a fifth of Canadians say climate change is the most important factor in determining their vote on September 20, according to the recent Angus Reid Institute. research.
“There is no question that for Canadians, coping with climate change is more important than previous elections,” Miller told Al Jazeera. “There is a very urgent response. People expect action.”
But as far as Ken Wu, director general of the Vancouver-based Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, is not affected, no parties are saying enough.
“We know that it is possible, thanks to COVID, to rehabilitate more and more human settlements and all that needs to be done in climate change,” said Wu, who has been involved in the fight to protect the ancient BC forests.
“This means very strong targets for us to stay within our 1.5-degree limit, as well as very high carbon prices, as well as very strong environmental protection,” he told Al Jazeera.
The promise of the party
It’s the choices that show dead heat between the ruling Liberal party, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the Conservatives, led by Erin O’Toole, national prices cannot be higher.
As a file of the fourth oil producer globally, the Canadian climate is warming up to double the dose of the global average. Although the Liberal government has signed an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the country has been increasing its emissions, providing a very bad reputation among the G7 countries.
Environmentalists have also been urging the government for a long time to end oil and gas growth killing new jobs seeking approval by the federation. But as a country with more natural resources, as well as resources built on their metrics, efforts to restrict the oil industry are pushing back, especially in an area that relies on such services as employment and finance.
The Trudeau government as well bought work to expand Trans Mountain pipelines though strong opponents from environmentalists and other Indian communities along the way, they say that the money generated by the pipeline is necessary to support Canada’s greenery.
“If we put a cup on the oil and oil and gas sands, it will be reduced to zero,” Trudeau said in a recent leadership debate, saying the country was on track to achieve its goals.
Its plan calls for greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced by 40 to 45 percent below 2005 by 2030 and is also planning to raise carbon prices and eliminate oil supplies by 2023.
The new Democrats on the left say the Liberals are not angry enough. They, in turn, have promised to cut off oil aid and have remained to promise cut off gas to 50 per cent below 2005 by 2030. The Green Party, which votes, he wants to hit 60 percent at the same time and has promised to ban all new pipeline operations.
For its part, the Conservative Party is asking for a price for the first carbon, after years of fighting tooth and nail. But the party refused earlier this year to announce real-time climate change, and undermine their credibility. O’Toole also pledged to achieve Paris’s original goal of reducing emissions by 30% under 2005 by 2030, which is below what Canada had agreed to.
‘Bolder’ action
For Miller, alternatives are already in place – in Canadian cities that are making plans to reduce emissions by 2030. He spoke in Vancouver, where international regulations require that they not be polluted by that year, or in the United States, where state vehicles are available. go electric.
The Liberal program, he said, is “a very good thing [party in] “The government has said the weather in Canada, but we can’t get where we need to go without courage.”
Esmé Decker, a 19-year-old student at the University of British Columbia and a civil rights activist, also wants to take a bold step.
She is working on voting for young people to vote in the election, strongly believing that young people who will vote have the opportunity to create an environment. He witnessed himself at climate change journalism seminars he leads at high schools in Vancouver, where students talk about how they live and grow along with climate change.
“My advice to these leaders is that please do not do anything you can to reduce the climate crisis,” Decker said. “We have the money, we have the means to respond to these processes, so we can just agree on what to do and make sure it happens.”