A climate crisis strike and rally was held in Middleton Sept. 27 in solidarity with similar actions across Canada and around the world. The event was held across from town hall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. attracting dozens of participants from all ages and from across the Valley.

Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg said to world leaders: “How Dare You?” The phrase has become a youth slogan across the globe as young people demand action from politicians to halt climate change. This sign was seen at a climate strike and rally in Middleton Sept. 27.

Randy Fredericks, right, was among those attending a climate strike and rally in Middleton Sept. 27. He said many things are already in place to fight climate change. “We just need to organize ourselves and implement them in ways that make sense at our local community scales and in the wider contexts as well,” he said.

Young people are leading the way to fight the climate crisis and as this sign indicates things are getting hotter by the minute. This youth was very serious about his message.

Katie McLean, with Clean Annapolis River Project, paints a sign during the climate strike and rally organized by CARP Sept. 27 in Middleton. Scores of people turned out and support from passing motorists was high.

Not everyone at the climate strike and rally in Middleton Sept. 27 was a student. The student-inspired events also included some older folk who were worried as well.

People from as far away as Digby attended the climate strike and rally in Middleton Sept. 27. They all wanted the same thing – action to reduce the use of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases.

This mother and her children held signs in front of town hall in Middleton Sept. 27 during a climate strike and rally organized by Clean Annapolis River Project.

The signs are the voices of youth gathered across from town hall in Middleton Sept. 27. They don’t want talk, they want action to halt climate change.

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MIDDLETON, N.S. —

“How Dare You?”

“We have no Planet B”

“Change or Perish”

“You’ll Die of Old Age, I’ll Die of Climate Change”

“Human Change, Not Climate Change”

“What I Stand For is what I Stand On”

“If you did your job, I’d be in School”

“Taking a Break from my Learning to Teach You a Lesson”

“Stop Denying the Earth is Dying!”

“If you don’t act now, We will”

Those were just a few of the signs held high when scores of worried people took part in a climate crisis strike Sept. 27 in Middleton, dozens more gathered and marched in Annapolis Royal, and even more concerned Valley residents boarded a bus and joined a crowd of 10,000 in Halifax.

The Middleton event was one of many strikes across the country and around the world as part of a weeklong global student climate strike, from Sept. 20 to 27, inspired by 16-year-old Swedish climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg who stood with 500,000 supporters in Montreal on that day.

The Middleton event saw young children, teens, NSCC students, and even grandparents taking part. Tables were set up and people painted signs, used Sharpies to write their message, and received lots of support from passersby. A mother and two young children stood for hours on the sidewalk in front of town hall waving their signs at passing traffic.

‘VERY CONCERNED’

“I’m here today at a public square across from Premier Stephen McNeil’s office where students and concerned citizens of the planet are meeting to show politicians that the public in general now we think this is an urgent crisis and something has to be done,” said Karen Jones from Bridgetown. She’s a retired biologist who spent part of her career cataloguing endangered and extinct species.

“I see around me parents, some small children. I see retired people. I see somebody who’s running in our federal election over there. I see some people from the States. There’s people from Virginia. There’s people here from the Clean Annapolis River Project. There’s young teenagers. There’s grandmothers and grandfathers here. Just regular Canadians are here. We’re very concerned.”

But Friday’s events give her something to hold onto.

“It does make me hopeful. It makes me very hopeful,” she said. “It’s these young kids here that are going to really be the ones who inherit this mess that’s going on now. They're so young. They’re waking up to it so early.”

She said there is a sociological theory that if you can get three per cent of the people to change the way they think, after that society will fall into place pretty quickly. She hopes that is what is happening.

YOUTH STRIKES

“It’s Climate Strike, Climate Rally that we’re participating in in support of the youth strikes that have been happening throughout the year that have been inspired by Greta Thunberg,” said Levi Cliche, with Clean Annapolis River Project that organized the day-long event in Middleton.

Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic to New York where she delivered a blistering speech at the United Nations and later before the US Congress. She joined the climate strike in New York and promised to be in Montreal on Sept. 27.

“We have quite a mix of groups here,” Cliche said. “We have people from a variety of communities from Digby down through to Coldbrook. We have people from the United States that are participating with us. We have school groups. We have Clean Annapolis River Project, Extinction Rebellion and various other organizations.”

Cliché said that while Clean Annapolis River Project usually takes a non-advocacy approach, this was different.

“I thought in this case, where this is an issue of science and scientific fact and the fact that we have to recognize it, decided this was an issue that we should facilitate,” he said, “and so CARP is organizing this and facilitating people’s participation.”

ACTION

Asked what the next federal government should do to deal with the climate crisis, Cliche said action needs to happen now.

“They should recognize it as the crisis that it is and stand up and make real drastic changes in order to tackle the issue, recognizing that we have a limited amount of time to actually save ourselves from what we’ve created,” he said.

“As an individual I’m doing my best to reduce my consumption of unnecessary things,” he said. “Trying to recognize that I live a life of relative luxury and think about every purchase decision I make in the context of my impact to the environment.”

Who does he want to hear the message from climate crisis strikers?

“I think our political leaders, anybody that has some decision-making at a higher level,” Cliche said. “I think we already recognize that individuals have some power to help with climate change, but systematically we need to make very big changes in order to tackle this issue.”

MITIGATION

“I’m here today to support the acknowledgement and action towards mitigation and adaptation to climate change on a large scale,” said Randy Fredericks. He held a sign that said ‘Human Change, Not Climate Change.’ “We are essentially almost out of time and we really need to get on this. The solutions are already in place. We just need to organize ourselves and implement them in ways that make sense at our local community scales and in the wider contexts as well. Some things will make sense at a very local scale. Some things may be more grid size, especially with renewable energy.”

He said we can cut a lot of our current emissions through efficiency as well, and the cost to do that would be relatively low.

Like Jones, Cliche believes people turning out to the climate strike was a hopeful sign.

“And the fact that people have turned out from a variety of different communities and different age groups as a show of support is very hopeful,” he said. “The fact that you can hear the honking in the background and people seem to be showing support as they see us here today shows, I think, that to a lot of people this is a very serious issue.”