Local author Donna Sinclair was a featured speaker at Tuesday's gathering to mark the first National Day of Seniors for Climate Action, held in the North Bay Public Library's auditorium.
The local group of seniors maintains greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels will kill millions or billions in the future and demands politicians stop supporting Big Oil and Gas and act immediately on the climate emergency.
The event was one of 78 held across Canada organized by Seniors for Climate. Its purpose was to gather seniors in an informal setting to discuss how they can affect change related to the climate crisis. The event also included a screening of a video message by David Suzuki.
An advance piece posted by BayToday drew a healthy response from our readers on opposing sides of the climate spectrum.
Asked if climate deniers are flat-out wrong in their thinking, Sinclair's eyes twinkled and she responded, "They may be just not fully educated yet. You know, the biggest climate denier of all is the guy who goes around saying, 'Axe the tax.'
"I guess what I would say to the climate deniers — particularly climate deniers that are in the political scene — is we need people to come up with policies and actions. Not slogans."
Sinclair's speech focused on the obligation of seniors to support youth when it comes to climate action.
"I think that seniors — and I'm a senior myself, of course — I think we have an obligation to work on this, in whatever way we can," said Sinclair. "All this stuff happened on our watch. Rapid industrialization started in the '50s. Well, our adult lifetime was pretty consumed with building up the carbon load in the atmosphere. So yeah, we have an obligation."
Sinclair feels the life experiences of the seniors' collective can be beneficial to younger generations.
"You know, it happened so gradually and it's the nature of climate change, isn't it? You don't live with it all the time. One day, you notice, there seem to be a few more forest fires or flooding is getting worse. So, I would say, that's the transition to being aware that the climate is on a rather bad course."
Sinclair's message to the group included acknowledging the fact that, as seniors, they "are more limited in our capacity to do things than we used to be. I think our job now is to support the youth. They're the ones who are doing the heavy lifting, they're the ones who are out there having 'Fridays for the climate,' this kind of thing. So, our job is to keep bringing hope to them.
"Some of us were around for World War II which killed, I think, an estimated 80 million people. So, we know that things can look pretty dark sometimes but we can also say, hey, we got through that. So that's what we're saying to the kids. We're going to help you as much as we can. We know we have our responsibility and we want to make sure that you know we're behind you."
Asked if she spends her free time advocating for climate action for any young people in particular, Sinclair responds, "I have grandkids whom I adore, of course, but even if I didn't have grandkids, I would be working on this, because we have a magnificent planet and we need to just love this planet, not give up on it."
Seniors for Climate (SFC) is a project founded by six seniors’ climate action groups Suzuki Elders, Climate Action for Lifelong Learners (CALL), Grandmothers Actto Save the Planet (GASP), Climate Legacy, Seniors for Climate Action Now! (SCAN!) and For Our Grandchildren (4RG).
