Ottawa (September 27th, 2019)

The letter states: “We, the Canadian science community, add our voices to those of the world’s youth, and call on our leaders to take action on this crisis. The demands of the students are backed by robust scientific evidence and action cannot wait.”

The climate strike movement started just over a year ago, when Swedish student Greta Thunberg walked out of school in protest of government inaction on climate change. Her actions sparked an international movement, with tens of thousands of young people around the globe organizing strikes and calling on their representatives to respond to the climate crisis with the bold, urgent action it demands.

Starting on September 20th, an all-ages global climate strike has been happening in 150 countries across the globe. Over the course of the past week, millions of people around the world have taken to the streets and joined youth activists to stand up to demand action on the climate emergency.

“We think it’s especially important for the science community to show up and support this student movement,” said Dr. Katie Gibbs, Executive Director of Evidence for Democracy. “We know that the current policies on the table are not in line with the magnitude of what climate science in telling us.”

The open letter has been signed by 995 Canadian scientists and will be presented to the student climate strike organizers at the Ottawa strike happening today at 11:30am starting at Confederation Park.

“Canada’s climate action plan should be fueled by the best available evidence and its ambition should reflect that of the youth leading this movement,” said Dr. Kimberly Girling, Research and Policy Director at Evidence for Democracy. “It is critical that Canada’s government not only uphold their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, but also respond to the recent Canada’s Changing Climate reports with bold action.”

Full text of the letter is available here.