Extreme weather causing more hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, ocean acidification and melting sheets of Arctic ice are all indicators that we are on the wrong track. The air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink are negatively affected by pollution. Our personal lives and our communities will increasingly suffer the consequences. While world leaders have agreed to limit warming to two degrees, current government pledges have us on a dangerous path towards six degrees of warming. This would lead to irreversible and substantial environmental, economic and social upheaval.
We can change course.
Atlantic Canadian provinces are already taking action to reduce pollution and generate good green jobs, but we need more. We can use our social ingenuity and resilience to provide energy security in a way that reduces pollution and builds a better future for all of us.
Many of our communities are coastal communities; all of our communities have strong ties to the water as well as the land. This puts Atlantic Canada on the front lines of climate change. For current and future generations, it is our responsibility to act now, and to act with conviction.
