Climate Justice Edmonton – daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics and Elections

Episode 49: Radical Sabbatical. Climate justice and Alberta politics with Chris Gusen

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Is Alberta ready to face the challenges of climate change?

Climate activist and communicator Chris Gusen joins Dave Cournoyer to discuss Alberta politics, climate justice, and a Green New Deal on the latest episode of the Daveberta Podcast.

Chris shares some insight into his transition from his role as the Alberta government’s Director of Identity to his current volunteer efforts with Extinction Rebellion and Climate Justice Edmonton, and what meaningful action against climate change could look like in Alberta.

Daveberta Podcast Alberta Politics Dave Cournoyer Adam Rozenhart — Daveberta Podcast

As always, a big thanks to our producer Adam Rozenhart for making the show sound so good.

The Daveberta Podcast is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. The Alberta Podcast Network includes more than 30 great made-in-Alberta podcasts.

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Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or you can email us at podcast@daveberta.ca. Thanks for listening!

Recommended reading/listening:

Edmonton City Hall School
Alberta Narratives Project
Climate Action Edmonton
Edmonton City Council declares climate emergency (Star Edmonton, Aug. 27, 2019)
Town of Canmore declares a state of climate emergency (Rocky Mountain Outlook, Oct. 2, 2019)
Three Alberta towns band together to prepare for climate change (CBC, Feb. 10, 2020)
When it comes to climate action, the public is ahead of our politics: Analysis of national climate poll (Seth Klein, behindthenumbers.ca, Aug. 12, 2019)
If you ain’t oil, you ain’t much. A deep dive into Alberta’s oil well liability crisis. (Episode 47, Daveberta Podcast, Jan. 27, 2020)
The climate strikes and Alberta’s increasing isolation on climate change urgency (Daveberta.ca, Sept. 27, 2019)
Teck withdraws application for Frontier oilsands mine, citing debate around climate policy (CBC, Feb. 23, 2020)
Preaching that fossil fuels are the enemy of humanity has no place in classrooms (David Staples, Postmedia, Jan. 29, 2020)

Greta Thunberg rallies massive crowd in the heart of Canada’s Oil Country

In the heart of Canada’s oil country, the biggest crowd I have ever seen in this province rallied down the streets of downtown Edmonton to the steps of the Alberta Legislature for today’s Climate Strike march.

The crowd of more than 10,000 converged on the Legislature grounds to hear from a long list of speakers, but they were mostly all there to hear from Greta Thunberg. The 16-year old international environmental activist announced three days ago that she would be in Edmonton and the massive turnout today is a testament to her star power, the remarkable on the ground organization of climate justice and indigenous groups in Alberta, and the growing importance of climate change in Alberta – and in Monday’s federal election.

“And we are not doing this because we want to. We aren’t doing it because it’s fun. We’re aren’t doing it because we have a special interest in the climate or because we want to become politicians when we grow up,” Thunberg told the massive crowd.

“We are doing this because our future is at stake.”

Thunberg avoided talking about the federal election or hot button local issues like the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project and oilsands emissions, and instead focused on the need to recognize the science and the political action that leaders need to take to address climate change.

Organizers of the Climate Strike in Edmonton included Climate Justice Edmonton, Edmonton Youth for Climate, Extinction Rebellion, and Beaver Hills Warriors. Along with Thunberg, speakers at the rally included Saddle Lake Cree Nation Headwoman, Pamela Quinn, student and organizer with Edmonton Youth for Climate Luke Nelson, Dene Tha First Nation youth activists Lynn Morin and Portia Morin, Climate Justice Edmonton organizer Batul Gulamhusein, student Edmonton Youth for Climate organizer Madison Prairie.

The 30 or so trucks that formed the pro-oil convoy that travelled from Red Deer and Nisku to downtown Edmonton made some noise, as did small groups of red hatted counter-protesters, but they were eclipsed by the sheer size of the crowd of Albertans participating in the Climate Strike.

There has been a lot of commentary about the fragility of pro-oil protesters who felt the need to counter-protest a 16-year old. But as political observer Chris Henderson posted on Twitter yesterday, they should feel threatened. Everywhere Greta Thunberg goes, she resonates orders of magnitude higher, just like she did today in Edmonton.