Canada and global warming: a state of denial 2

The results of another climate change study were also released yesterday, this time in the journal Science Advances that looked at "The rate at which the planet warms in response to the ongoing buildup of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas could increase in the future, according to new simulations of a comparable warm period more than 50 million years ago." The researchers warn that older models have underestimated the positive feedback effects of carbon dioxide rises accelerating further increases in carbon dioxide and its climate warming effects on the planet. 

The problem with previous climate change models is that have consistently underestimated the amount and rate of change created by global warming around the world. The articles referenced in the previous post and this one give explanations of why this could be the case and further accentuate the need to act quickly and dramatically to greatly reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, instead of building more pipelines and producing more oil and natural gas as the Liberals and Conservatives are proposing to do. 

The graph below illustrates the steadily growing rate of increases in average temperature compared to the average temperature of the 20th century. 

Researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona used a state-of-the-art climate model to successfully simulate -- for the first time -- the extreme warming of the Early Eocene Period, which is considered an analog for Earth's future climate.

They found that the rate of warming increased dramatically as carbon dioxide levels rose, a finding with far-reaching implications for Earth's future climate, the researchers report in a paper scheduled for publication Sept. 18 in the journal Science Advances.

Another way of stating this result is that the climate of the Early Eocene became increasingly sensitive to additional carbon dioxide as the planet warmed.

"We were surprised that the climate sensitivity increased as much as it did with increasing carbon dioxide levels," said first author Jiang Zhu, a postdoctoral researcher at the U-M Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

"It is a scary finding because it indicates that the temperature response to an increase in carbon dioxide in the future might be larger than the response to the same increase in CO2 now. This is not good news for us."

The researchers determined that the large increase in climate sensitivity they observed -- which had not been seen in previous attempts to simulate the Early Eocene using similar amounts of carbon dioxide -- is likely due to an improved representation of cloud processes in the climate model they used, the Community Earth System Model version 1.2, or CESM1.2.

Global warming is expected to change the distribution and types of clouds in the Earth's atmosphere, and clouds can have both warming and cooling effects on the climate. In their simulations of the Early Eocene, Zhu and his colleagues found a reduction in cloud coverage and opacity that amplified CO2-induced warming.

The same cloud processes responsible for increased climate sensitivity in the Eocene simulations are active today, according to the researchers. ...

The Early Eocene (roughly 48 million to 56 million years ago) was the warmest period of the past 66 million years. It began with the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which is known as the PETM, the most severe of several short, intensely warm events.

The Early Eocene was a time of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and surface temperatures at least 14 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer, on average, than today. Also, the difference between temperatures at the equator and the poles was much smaller.

Geological evidence suggests that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached 1,000 parts per million in the Early Eocene, more than twice the present-day level of 412 ppm. If nothing is done to limit carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, CO2 levels could once again reach 1,000 ppm by the year 2100, according to climate scientists.

Until now, climate models have been unable to simulate the extreme surface warmth of the Early Eocene -- including the sudden and dramatic temperature spikes of the PETM -- by relying solely on atmospheric CO2 levels. Unsubstantiated changes to the models were required to make the numbers work, said Poulsen, a professor in the U-M Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and associate dean for natural sciences.

"For decades, the models have underestimated these temperatures, and the community has long assumed that the problem was with the geological data, or that there was a warming mechanism that hadn't been recognized," he said. ...

"For the first time, a climate model matches the geological evidence out of the box -- that is, without deliberate tweaks made to the model. It's a breakthrough for our understanding of past warm climates," Tierney said. ...

The term equilibrium climate sensitivity refers to the long-term change in global temperature that would result from a sustained doubling -- lasting hundreds to thousands of years -- of carbon dioxide levels above the pre-industrial baseline of 285 ppm. The consensus among climate scientists is that the ECS is likely to be between 1.5 C and 4.5 C (2.7 F-8.1 F).

The equilibrium climate sensitivity in CESM1.2 is near the upper end of that consensus range at 4.2 C (7.7 F). The U-M-led study's Early Eocene simulations exhibited increasing equilibrium climate sensitivity with warming, suggesting an Eocene sensitivity of more than 6.6 C (11.9 F), much greater than the present-day value.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190918142035.htm

Australia

My visit to Australia in the last month was my second visit there. While waiting at the airport in Fiji in 2014 I met a young woman returning home to the family farm in bush country - the region between Australia's coast and the Outback. She told me then that she thought bush farming was going to disappear within a generation. Sadly her prediction is coming true as climate change induced drought has already cut sheep flocks which are overwhelmingly in bush country to 37% of their mid 1990s highs in an industry which Australia dominates as the following graphs illustrate. Even a $5 billion dollar government rescue package for the industry appears to have little likelihood of changing the downward path as the two graphs below illustrate. 

https://www.ft.com/content/7c5204aa-bee7-11e9-b350-db00d509634e

The 31 months from January 2017 to July 2019 show they have been the driest on record for the state of New South Wales and in the Murray Darling Basin, the country’s biggest wool growing areas, according to rainfall data from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.  ...

The plight of wool growers — an industry which epitomises Australia’s rise as an export heavyweight in the 20th century and supplies three-quarters of the world’s top-quality merino wool — is focusing attention on the threat posed by climate change and on strategies to adapt to drought conditions to prevent a collapse in sheep numbers and wool production. ...

Last month parliament passed a A$5bn government assistance package for farmers. Wool growers, traditionally a conservative constituency sceptical about climate change, have begun to lobby the government to take stronger measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  ...

Drought is a recurring feature in Australia — the driest continent on earth — but the current dry period in the country’s eastern states is devastating for farmers, who are struggling to grow crops to feed their animals.

This week bushfires have spread across the state as well as Queensland, prompting Australian firefighters to warn they had “never seen” such severe blazes so early in spring.

The extensive wildfires during the first week of September, at the very beginning of the Australian spring, which caused the New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian to come on TV to warn that these never-before seen wildfires at the start of spring meant that people had to now expect the wildfire season to not only get worse under these extreme conditions but to last an previously unheard of six to nine months. Similar concerns were expressed by the Premier of Queensland state. 

Also increasing the risk of extensive wildfire damage is the temperature rise associated with climate change. People told me that although it was not the end of winter in Melbourne, temperatures were typical of spring. 

We’re already seeing the impact of rising temperatures today. In January 2018, temperatures in Sydney soared to over 47 degrees Celsius (about 117 degrees Fahrenheit). It was the hottest day the city had seen in nearly 80 years. It’s true, heatwaves are not a new phenomenon. But climate change is making heatwaves more common, more severe, and longer lasting. Heatwaves have real impacts on human health and wellbeing – leading to heat exhaustion or even heat stroke. (https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/how-climate-change-affecting-...)

As you probably already know, Australia's Great Barrier Reef and its associated tourist industry are under severe threat. 

Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef has been hit exceptionally hard by both factors. Stressed by warmer and more acidic waters, coral expels the colorful algae it depends on to survive. The coral turns white – known as “coral bleaching” – and unless the coral has a chance to recover and the algae can return, it can die, upsetting entire marine ecosystems.

This can happen on a vast scale, in what’s called a “mass bleaching event.” In 2016, the Great Barrier Reef experienced a mass bleaching event that scientists say was made 175 times more likely by climate change.

Coral can recover from bleaching but that doesn’t always happen. In fact, about 30 percent of corals on the reef have died since the 2016 mass bleaching event.

Marine life depends on the Great Barrier Reef – and so do Australians. A Deloitte Access Economics report values the reef at over AUD $57 billion (over $40 billion in US dollars). The reef supports fisheries, helps employ more than 64,000 people, and brings tourists from around the globe to see this World Heritage Site. If we’re going to save the Great Barrier Reef, we must act on climate. (https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/how-climate-change-affecting-...)

Several Australians in coastal areas told me about their concerns about sea level rise destroying their homes. "The Australian Government released a report on the impacts of climate change on coastal areas of Australia, finding that up to 247,600 houses are at risk from flooding from a sea-level rise of 1.1 metres. There were 39,000 buildings located within 110 metres of 'soft' erodible shorelines, at risk from accelerated erosion due to sea -level rise." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_Australia#Economy)

Aware that Montreal has been one of the world's strongest cities in supporting Student Strikes for Climate Action, Greta Thunberg, the autistic 15 year old girl who started what started a global movement in August 218 by protesting outside Swedish Parliament alone about political inaction on climate change (https://en.wikipedia.org/The

"The young activist has previously expressed support for activism in Montreal during the 'student strike' demonstrations back on March 15. "The Montreal march was one of the largest demonstrations in the world during the Friday for the Future Global Walkout, with more than 150,000 students taking part. " (https://www.mtlblog.com/news/canada/qc/montreal/greta-thunberg-wants-to-...)

Greta Thunberg has agreed to attend the Montreal student strike, which is expected to have 300,000 protesters marching, although she turned down an offer to speak to the National Assembly in Quebec City. 

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante took to Twitter this morning to make the announcement, adding that she and Thunberg will be among “the 300,000 people expected to march for the climate in Montréal on September 27.” 

https://dailyhive.com/montreal/greta-thunberg-key-city-montreal

In New York, 250,000 people turned out at the Student Strike for Climate Action. The following article discusses the New York strike and contains a video that describes 16 year old autistic Greta Thunberg's role in starting and stimulating this ongoing protests. 

Greta Thunberg spoke at the climate strike in New York City Friday, arriving on stage at a rally in Battery Park to cheers of “Greta! Greta!” 

Thunberg began by listing off numbers of participants in the climate strike around the world, stating that at least 250,000 people in New York City joined roughly four million others striking worldwide. CNN has not verified these numbers. 

“It’s just not the young people’s house. We all live here. It affects all of us,” Thunberg said. “Why should we study for a future that is being taken away from us? That is being stolen for profit? Some people say we should study to become climate scientists or politicians, so that we can, in the future, solve the climate crisis. But by then, it will be too late. We need to do this now.” 

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/global-climate-strike-2019/index.html

Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, the daughter of the late environmental and Honduran indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, who in 2016 "was assassinated in her home by armed intruders, after years of threats against her life. ... Twelve environmental activists were killed in Honduras in 2014, according to research by Global Witness, making it the most dangerous country in the world, relative to its size, for activists protecting forests and rivers. Her murder was followed by those of two more activists within the same month." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_Cáceres)

has joined Greta Thunberg in supporting climate action.

Berta's mother warned that a Canadian company operating in Honduras was involved in making death threats against her before her murder because of her being a leader of a movement to resist "corporate development projects being launched without local consent" that had many major negative environmental impacts including with regard to climate change. 

In August 2019, the Trudeau government put out a ombudsman guideline for Canadian firms operating abroad that is so useless it caused the environmental group Mining Watch and 13 other civil society organizations to resign in protest (for a detailed description of this see post #20). 

Murdered Honduran Indigenous activist Berta Caceres warned on multiple occasions that she had received death threats and other harassment from state and corporate agents, including Canadian hydroelectric giant Blue Energy, as a result of her activism resisting unwanted development projects on Indigenous territory.

Caceres made statements last April claiming that “men close to Blue Energy,” a transnational Canadian company looking to build a dam in the Rio Blanco area in western Honduras, or people “close to politicians” and “death squads promoted from government policies” were behind the death threats leveled against her.

“I have received direct death threats, threats of kidnapping, or disappearance, of lynching, of pummeling the vehicle I use, threats of kidnapping my daughter, persecution, surveillance, sexual harassment, and also campaigns in the national media of powerful sectors,” Caceres told EFE last year.

Caceres, co-founder of the Indigenous organization COPINH and prominent resistance activist, was a key leader of resistance movements in Rio Blanco against corporate development projects being launched without local consent.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Berta-Caceres-Received-Death-Threats...

Berta's daughter said in support of the student strikes for climate action:

“We believe that all struggles are worthwhile. We will continue to push for climate action to protect our nature, our people and our future,” said Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, an environmental and indigenous rights activist from Honduras. ... “We have no choice but to fight for our rights. Our proposal is for governments to set high ambitions and how are we going to make radical change. And this is an opportunity for us to clamor [for] climate justice,” said Zúñiga, who, along with more than 200 environmental and human rights groups, took part in a people’s summit that was held ahead of the global climate strike." ...

The summit adopted a declaration calling on governments and corporations to urgently tackle the climate emergency and ramp up climate commitments.

“This is the moment of urgency. This is the new era of climate movement. And it is time to fight for human rights-centered climate action,” said Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of Amnesty International. “We need to seize the opportunity to hold governments and corporations alike to be accountable. Nature does not negotiate and we cannot change the science. We need political will because it is our responsibility to rise up for the benefit of the generations to come.”

Naidoo said that apart from joining the strike, these organizations plan to pursue more concerted climate litigation efforts, target the financial sector’s funding of fossil fuels, make more effective use of human rights accountability mechanisms, and coordinate more mass mobilization campaigns at national and regional levels.
Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, said the declaration marks a new era of climate activism by putting people and human rights at the core of its solutions.

“We will all take action and confront those responsibilities. Weak governments and toxic corporate power will have nowhere to hide as we put people at the center of our demands, and seek climate justice for the communities least responsible but most vulnerable to this climate emergency,” Morgan said.

Pointing to the case of people in poorer countries being hit hardest by the impacts of climate change, Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director Naderev “Yeb” Saño said the global climate strike led by the young has not only created awareness but put pressure on climate policymakers to help people cope with these impacts.

In 2013, Yeb Sano was the lead negotiator for the Philippines at COP19 in Warsaw. Image by Push Europe via Flickr (CC BT-NC 2.0).

“There is a massive clamor from all sectors at this time of climate emergency. The Philippines, for instance, is a stark example of the gross injustice brought on by climate impacts which infringe on people’s most fundamental rights such as the right to life, shelter, food and livelihood,” Saño said. ...

Thousands of Filipino youths are expected to stage protests in 28 locations demanding the government declare a climate emergency.
“Calling for enhanced climate action is not enough anymore,” said Jefferson Estela, convener of the Youth Strike for Climate Philippines. “This is a climate emergency and the government needs to send a clear policy signal about the urgency of this crisis.”

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/all-set-to-strike-students-youths-and-...

Why has this been allowed to continue? In part, because Canadian laws have been extremely weak in dealing with this, the Trudeau government has done to meaningfully to address the issue despite lobbying for social justice and environmental groups, and Canadian corporations know this. 

All over the world, companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and run out of lawyer’s offices on Bay Street or skyscrapers in downtown Vancouver (whose real financiers may live in Australia or Nevada) are handling the mining game at home, throughout parts of Asia, South America and surprisingly, even with all the talk of China’s investment in Africa, it turns out that it’s Canada, not China, who is quietly dominating and exploiting African mining. All told, almost 1,300 mining companies based out of Canada are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in over 100 countries around the world.

So the question is, why? What makes Canada such an attractive option for the ‘extractive sector’? Canadians don’t own all of these mining companies—but these organizations do plop their headquarters down here—what is it about this country that makes it such an industry haven?

I asked Jamie Kneen, research coordinator with Ottawa based MiningWatch Canada, a non-profit organization that describes itself as “a direct response to industry and government failures to protect the public and the environment from destructive mining practices and to deliver on their sustainability rhetoric.” Just why it is that Canada is the go-to place for mining companies to set up shop?

“There’s two sides to it,” he said. “One is that there is a concentration of expertise in mining finance and mining law, it does have a historical basis” He is of course referring to the various Canadian gold rushes, the nickel deposits in Sudbury, coal in Cape Breton, etc. “The other side is that Canada provides very favourable conditions. The listing requirements for the TSX are pretty lax, the disclosure requirements are pretty lax, you don’t have to have Canadian directories or Canadian shareholders to be a Canadian company... and the Canadian government doesn’t ask too many questions about whether you’re paying your taxes in other jurisdictions (i.e. foreign countries where the mines are operating).”

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/75-of-the-worlds-mining-companies-are...

Canadian mining companies have played a major role in the growing violence against environmentalists. The article found at the url below describes the murder of 37 environmentali activists and their connections to Canadian mining companies. 

          Blanket: "Canadian Mining Kills"

 

Four days after the assassination of Honduran indigenous leader Berta Cáceres captured worldwide headlines, a vigil to remind of the blood on Canada’s hands for all those who have died protesting Canadian mining projects abroad interrupted the mining industry’s annual confab in Toronto on Sunday, March 6.

The vigil held by the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network at the convention of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) was presided over by Anglican priest Maggie Helwig. “We are here to name the dead,” she said.

The names of some two dozen victims of such violence were read out at the PDAC vigil. The protesters were then escorted out by police.

Canadian mining companies are among the worst human rights offenders on the planet. The most recent evidence of that is a 2014 report submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. A 2009 report commissioned by PDAC but never made public also detailed targeted assassinations and persecution of activists and union leaders opposing Canadian projects abroad. 

It’s impossible to know exactly who killed each of these people. The vast majority of the cases have not been solved or in many cases even investigated. But they all have something in common: all were assassinated and all resisted Canadian mining projects. 

https://nowtoronto.com/news/canadian-mining-is-murder/

In 2018, Climate Change News noted that the most dangerous place for activists and indigenous communities was the Philippines, which saw 30 murders, according to the latest Global Witness report. (Photo: Cassi Gurell/Flickr) (https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/07/30/164-land-defenders-murdered...)

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is known as a dictatorial thug for good reason, having said that he has personally thrown a corrupt poltician out of a helicopter, promising to kill 100,000 criminals in his first six months in office (currently "An average 1,015 people have been reportedly killed each month by police or vigilantes since Duterte took office on June 30.") (https://www.yahoo.com/news/philippine-president-rodrigo-dutertes-most-ou...)

Ironically, in view of his own atrocious human rights abuse record, one of the reasons for his popularity is his threat to kick the ten Canadian mining companies out of the country because of their record of cooperating in murder and sexual abuse. Of course his record never matched his promise. 

He has also said foreign mining companies, including Canadian firms, need to "shape up" and would prefer Filipino ownership. This may well be an attempt to reward his own cronies, but with the murderous record of Canadian and other foreign mining firms they have no local support and are worried, despite saying otherwise.

I have no faith that a Duterte-led Filipino set of cronies would be much better, but it just might send a message to foreign firms that being so ruthless could be costly to their own interests.

New Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte may make headlines because of his outspoken (and often controversial) ways, but his approach to mining will have a substantial impact on foreign firms — including several Canadian companies.

Duterte, who is known for his tough stance on crime and disregard for due process, said after winning the country’s presidential election in May that mining companies in the Philippines need to “shape up”. He went on to say he prefers mining assets to be owned by locals, rather than foreign companies.

That was followed by the naming of committed environmentalist Regina Lopez to head the country’s natural resources department, which set off uncertainty for foreign firms operating in the Philippines. One industry official told Reuters the sector is “shell shocked” by Lopez’s appointment.

For their parts, the 10 listed Canadian mining companies operating in the Philippines said they are not concerned, according to the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), a leading industry group.

“PDAC supports responsible mineral exploration and mining everywhere in the world, including the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia,” said PDAC executive director Andrew Cheatle in a statement. “Each (of the 10 Canadian firms) is expected to observe the highest environmental and social responsibility standards. … We fully support responsible exploration and improved regulatory processes in the Philippines.”

Other observers have been less optimistic. Dave Forest, managing geologist for the Pierce Points resource-industry newsletter, called Lopez’s views on open-pit mining “horrific” evidence that the Filipino minister has taken one of the strongest anti-mining stances ever by a government official. It could put the industry at risk, he said in an analysis.

“Strong anti-mining sentiment seems to be permeating all levels of authority in the country,” Forest wrote, adding that foreign mining operations may soon face full-scale reviews if violations are discovered. “Here’s to knowing when to fold ’em.”

https://vancouversun.com/business/local-business/asia-pacific-duterte-re...

ETA: As the election writ was about to be dropped the Trudeau Liberal government put out a paper tiger "mandate of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) – once again failing to address the main concerns raised by MiningWatch Canada and many other civil society members." However, Mining Watch and 13 other "civil society organizations resigned from a federal advisory committee after the federal government took away powers to investigate from the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE)," because they saw its as toothless and doing nothing to solve the problem. I guess when you lobby the Trudeau Liberals 530 times in 15 months, like the mining industry, you get rules that suit you perfectly. 

A report released today by the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project shows that the two mining industry associations, the Mining Association of Canada and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, lobbied the federal government 530 times between January 2018 and April 2019. (https://miningwatch.ca/news/2019/7/24/mining-industry-lobbied-government...)

This is just a continuation of non-action by Canadian governments over decades on human rights for environmentalists harmed by Canadian corporations. 

MiningWatch, other members of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, and Professor Surya Deva of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights  have repeatedly pointed out that the Ombuds’ mandate fails to provide the most critical characteristics of an ombudsperson tasked with investigating allegations of human rights abuses by Canadian corporations operating overseas: independence and the powers to compel witnesses and documents. ...

“We need answers,” says MiningWatch spokesperson Catherine Coumans. She asks, “Why has the government failed to release the legal study it commissioned? Why has the government revised the ombudsperson’s Order-in-Council in the dying days of its mandate, but again failed to give her the necessary powers to compel evidence?”

The ongoing failure by Minister Carr to answer these questions leads to only one conclusion; once again, in the face of a massive mining industry lobby, the government has failed to show the political will to hold Canadian companies to account for serious human rights abuses.

On August 19, MiningWatch Canada resigned from its position as an alternate on the government’s Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Body on Responsible Business Conduct Abroad (MSAB). “We have lost confidence that this government is at all serious about human rights when it comes to the activities of Canadian companies operating overseas,” says Coumans, adding, “If it will not empower the ombudsperson to do her job effectively, then what is the point in talking about other possible business and human rights initiatives?”

https://miningwatch.ca/news/2019/9/12/trudeau-government-drops-writ-and-..

Climate Action Tracker, "independent scientific analysis produced by three research organisations tracking climate action since 2009. We track progress towards the globally agreed aim of holding warming well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C " (https://climateactiontracker.org/about/) rates Canada's climate change current policies under the Trudeau Liberals as "highly insufficient" in helping hold global warming below two degrees Celsius. 

The CAT rates Canada’s NDC as “Insufficient”. The “Insufficient” rating indicates that Canada’s climate commitment in 2030 is not consistent with holding warming to below 2°C, let alone limiting it to 1.5°C as required under the Paris Agreement, and is instead consistent with warming between 2°C and 3°C. If all countries were to follow Canada’s approach, warming could reach over 2°C and up to 3°C. This means Canada’s climate commitment is at the least stringent end of what would be a fair share of global effort, and is notconsistent with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit, unless other countries make much deeper reductions and comparably greater effort.

The CAT ratings are based on climate commitments in NDCs. If the CAT were to rate Canada’s projected emissions levels in 2030 under current policies, we would rate Canada “Highly insufficient”, indicating that Canada’s current policies in 2030 are not consistent with holding warming to below 2°C, let alone limiting it to 1.5°C as required under the Paris Agreement, and are instead consistent with warming between 3°C and 4°C: if all countries were to follow Canada’s approach, warming could reach over 3°C and up to 4°C. This means Canada’s current policies are not in line with any interpretation of a “fair” approach to the former 2°C goal, let alone the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit.

https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/canada/fair-share/

Here in graph form is a comparison fossil fuel burnt per capita in G20 countries with Canada continuing to be second only to Saudi Arabia under the Trudeau Liberals: 

Canadians and Americans are at the extreme end — burning four times the global average. Only the Saudis, in dead last, burn more than we do. Back in 1990, Canadians burned much less than Americans, per person. Now, we burn more than they do.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/07/31/opinion/fossil-fuel-burning-...

Here is a video of Greta Thunberg speaking at the United Nations on Monday criticizing all governments for their failure to deal with climate change for decades. Obviously, that includes our Liberal and Conservative governments. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU

Here is some of what she said in written form: 

"This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” ...

People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about are money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you? For more than 30 years the science has been crystal clear. How dare you look away?

Ashley Reese comments on how she is treated by many leaders. 

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg is regularly on the receiving end of unhinged vitriol from the right—condemned as an alarmist propagandist by those who refuse to read the writing on the wall—but she is also repeatedly condescended to by her supposed allies. She knows it, too. 

It’s been easy for people to approach Thunberg as an endearing, precious oddity: she’s a 16-year-old white girl from Sweden who speaks in a soft, careful voice about the already unfolding climate crisis. But Thunberg has made it clear that she’s not here to be a cute, vapid mascot of progress for lawmakers who want to pat her on the head and move on. She addressed this tension on Monday in a cutting speech before the United Nations General Assembly. ...

Thunberg is not here to be palatable. She is not here to be adorable GIF-fodder, or to reassure apathetic elites that the future is in good hands. She is here to be taken seriously. The stakes are too high for her not to be. Her activism isn’t cute—it’s terrifying.

https://theslot.jezebel.com/greta-thunberg-isnt-your-mascot-1838370333

Friday September 27th will be another day of Student Strikes for Climate Action around the world including in Canada. 

You can find where they are located on the map at the following url:

https://climatestrikecanada.org/september

Montreal March 15th Student Strike for Climate Action

Greta Thunberg will be attending the Montreal Student Strike Climate Action protest on Friday because she was impressed by the 150,000 people who attended the March 15th protest. Tomorrow's protest is expected to be even larger. 

I felt it was important to repost this from the Activist thread because the question is central to our future.

Paladin1 wrote:

Does Greta Thunberg have a plan to tackle climate change?

Thunberg is a sixteen year old girl who began her protest alone in front of the Swedish Parliament. Her strategy is protesting how climate change is destroying the future of those who are too young to vote and future generations has caught on globally because youth see that they will be the biggest losers from global warming as the effects of climate change grow worse and worse over time. Without the vote, money or power they have pushed the global warming issue  to the top of the politicial agenda, dragging the politicians along to say the right thing.

Sixty nations have pledged at the UN meeting this week to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 as mass pressure on them has grown, with a significant part of this coming from global youth. Do I believe the politicians or Trudeau? No. But as Thunberg said "We'll be watching you". They are pushing as hard as they can and will continue to pressure the politicians well into the future because their own futures depend on it.

The tragedy is that by the time their votes may be decisive in changing our energy plans, it may be too late, as the overwhelming majority of climate scientists said we have twelve years left to deal meaningfully with this problem through an enormous change in energy sources by rapidly moving away from fossil fuels. We are now three months away from having ten years left of these tweleve years and global emissions continue to grow. Nevertheless, the fight continues because the alternative of giving up is globally catastrophic. 

Large student strike are occurring across Canada with up to 300,000 expected in Montreal. 

Thousands of people began to fill streets across Canada on Friday in support of the Global Climate Strike movement, demanding action against climate change.

Climate marches began early in St. John's, N.L. as crowds marched to Memorial University's clock tower. The march is set to make its way to the provincial legislature on Confederation Hill.

More than 80 cities across the country are capping off a week of international protests and a call for action for governments to do more to slow climate change.

In Halifax, hundreds of people, including large groups of students from Dartmouth High School, gathered in Victoria Park for the protest. The Halifax march's route is expected to wind through the centre of the city to the headquarters of Nova Scotia Power, where some of those participating planned to participate in a so-called "die-in."

In New Brunswick, students staged a mass walkout at Samuel de Champlain School in Saint John.

Sept. 20 was the kick-off for a week of climate activities, with two global climate strikes planned on Sept. 20 and Sept. 27. The UN emergency climate summit was held on Sept. 23, in between the two climate strike dates. The global strikes were inspired by #FridaysForFuture, a movement following Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s call for students to strike.

In Toronto, demonstrators arrived at the Ontario legislature ahead of the 11 a.m. protest. Mayor John Tory said on social media the city's iconic Toronto sign will not be lit today in solidarity with all those taking part in #ClimateStrikeCanada.

In Montreal, Thunberg delivered remarks just after 10 a.m. before taking part in the city's protest.

"I'm very excited to be here… to once again stand together, people from all round the world for one common cause that is very empowering," the teen activist said. "It is very moving to see everyone, everyone who is so passionate to march and strike. People of all ages, all generations, it's a very good day I would say."

City officials said as many as 300,000 people, many of them students, will pack downtown streets. Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau will also take part in the strike.

In Calgary, more than 600 students at the University of Calgary are expected to walk out of morning classes and parade down to city hall for a rally scheduled for noon. With just weeks until the federal election, the group is calling for a Green New Deal and demanding climate policies from all candidates. ...

At the UN’s global summit last Monday, Thunberg said the current plans to tackle the climate crisis do not take it seriously enough, saying that the strictest emission cuts being talked about would only give the world a 50 per cent chance of limiting future warming to another 0.4 degrees Celsuis, which is a global goal.

“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction,” Thunberg warned world leaders. “And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

A climate report put out this week says that oceans are becoming more acidic and warmer, glaciers are shrinking, new illnesses are breaking out due to warming waters, and by 2060 it is estimated that coastal floods off British Columbia and the Maritimes that used to occur once a century will be annual events.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/thousands-of-canadians-filling-streets-dur...

There is a climate change consensus that climate change is made primarily through the use of fossil fuels. Many of those scientists 

Do scientists agree on climate change?

Yes, the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change. Most of the leading science organizations around the world have issued public statements expressing this, including international and U.S. science academies, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a whole host of reputable scientific bodies around the world. A list of these organizations is provided here.

READ MORE

• Scientific consensus: Earth's climate is warming​
• “The scientific consensus on climate change,” N. Oreskes, Science, Vol. 306 no. 5702, p. 1686, doi: 10.1126/science.1103618 (2004).
• “Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature,” J. Cook et al., Environ. Res. Lett., 8 024024, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024024 (2013).

ADDITIONAL CITATIONS

• "Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming Environ," J. Cook et al., Res. Lett. 11 (2016) 048002, pp 1–7, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/048002 (2016).

• "Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," P. Doran et al., EOS, Vol. 90, Issue 3, Pages 22–23, doi: 10.1029/2009EO030002 (2009).

• "Expert credibility in climate change," W. Anderegg et al., PNAS, Vol. 107 no. 27, 12107–12109, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1003187107 (2010).

• "Meteorologists' Views About Global Warming: A Survey of American Meteorological Society Professional Members," N. Stenhouse et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Volume 95 No. 7, pp 1029–1040, doi: 10.1175/ BAMS-D-13-00091.1 (2014).

• "Scientists’ Views about Attribution of Global Warming," B. Verheggen et al., Environ. Sci. Technol., 48 (16), pp 8963–8971, doi: 10.1021/es501998e (2014).

• "The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists," J.S. Carlton et al., Environ. Res. Lett. 10 (2015) 094025, pp 1–12, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/094025 (2015).

https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/17/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/

Many of the climate change deniers have been funded by the fossil fuel companies who have used the same researchers to promote climate change denial. 

Tobacco and Oil Industries Used Same Researchers to Sway Public

Documents housed at the University of California, San Francisco, and analyzed in recent months by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, show that the oil and tobacco industries have been linked for decades. The files CIEL drew its research from have been public for years. ...

“From the 1950s onward, the oil and tobacco firms were using not only the same PR firms and same research institutes, but many of the same researchers,” CIEL President Carroll Muffett said in a statement.

“Again and again we found both the PR firms and the researchers worked first for oil, then for tobacco,” he said. “It was a pedigree the tobacco companies recognized and sought out.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tobacco-and-oil-industries-us...

Willie Soon is the most famous of the climate change denier 'researchers' who hid his funding from the fossil fuel industry . 

Soon is a climate change denier, disputing the scientific understanding of climate change, and contends that most global warming is caused by solar variation rather than by human activity. He co-wrote a paper whose methodology was widely criticised by the scientific community. Climate scientists such as Gavin Schmidtof the Goddard Institute for Space Studies have refuted Soon's arguments, and the Smithsonian does not support his conclusions. He is nonetheless frequently cited by politicians opposed to climate-change legislation. ...

From 2005 to 2015, Soon had received over $1.2 million from the fossil fuel industry, while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Soon

Sweet!

Generation fix-it

NDPP wrote:

 

"Raoni Metuktire, Chief of the Kayapo people of the Brazilian Amazon, was told he doesn't have the right pass to hold a press conference at the UN Climate Summit.

https://twitter.com/dharnanoor/status/1176172427191234560

"He was recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his life of work to protect the Amazon."

Sorry Chief, only Greta...

 

Although the United Nations did not allow Raoni Metuktire, Chief of the Kayapo people of the Brazilian Amazon, Greta Thunberg made sure she kicked off the Montreal Student Strike for Climate Action with Canadian indigenous leaders in an 18 minute ceremony in the video below that was shown on the CBC. The video of the ceremony can be seen at the url below. She has more wisdom than our politicians. 

"Greta Thunberg was welcomed by Indigenous leaders before a climate march in Montreal. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPKwKQVNy44

Jagmeet Singh's attendance at the Victoria Student Strike for Climate Action contrasted with Andrew Scheer, who was also in BC, in Vancouver and Bernier' comment about Greta Thunberg yesterday. 

Singh attended a climate strike rally in Victoria on Friday after an earlier campaign stop where he said a New Democratic government would commit $40 million to help protect Canada's coastline. He did not make a speech at the rally, but he waded through the crowd, stopping to hold impromptu conversations with people.

https://www.bramptonguardian.com/news-story/9618587-singh-attends-victor...

On the other hand, Scheer did not attend any climate action rally today but instead announced he would provide more money for highways and bridges to relieve congestion. Just what the climate needs!

Andrew Scheer is promising to prioritize infrastructure spending on projects intended to cut commuting times as part of a wider pledge to reshape how the federal government doles out billions annually for roads, bridges, highways, and transit systems.

Scheer made the pledge in Coquitlam on Friday and said the George Massey tunnel replacement in the greater Vancouver area would be placed high on a Conservative government’s priority list.

https://vancouversun.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/scheer-pledges-to-...

Here is some very interesting research on the power of mass protests and the 3.5% rule. Once around 3.5% of the whole population has begun to participate actively, success appears to be inevitable.​ 

This gives some hope for the Student Strikes for Climate Action. 

In 1986, millions of Filipinos took to the streets of Manila in peaceful protest and prayer in the People Power movement. The Marcos regime folded on the fourth day.

In 2003, the people of Georgia ousted Eduard Shevardnadze through the bloodless Rose Revolution, in which protestors stormed the parliament building holding the flowers in their hands.

Earlier this year, the presidents of Sudan and Algeria both announced they would step aside after decades in office, thanks to peaceful campaigns of resistance.  

In each case, civil resistance by ordinary members of the public trumped the political elite to achieve radical change.

There are, of course, many ethical reasons to use nonviolent strategies. But compelling research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way.

Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

Chenoweth’s influence can be seen in the recent Extinction Rebellion protests, whose founders say they have been directly inspired by her findings. So just how did she come to these conclusions? ...

Needless to say, Chenoweth’s research builds on the philosophies of many influential figures throughout history. The African-American abolitionist Sojourner Truth, the suffrage campaigner Susan B Anthony, the Indian independence activist Mahatma Gandhi and the US civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King have all convincingly argued for the power of peaceful protest.

Yet Chenoweth admits that when she first began her research in the mid-2000s, she was initially rather cynical of the idea that nonviolent actions could be more powerful than armed conflict in most situations. ...

But Chenoweth was surprised to find that no-one had comprehensively compared the success rates of nonviolent versus violent protests; perhaps the case studies were simply chosen through some kind of confirmation bias. “I was really motivated by some scepticism that nonviolent resistance could be an effective method for achieving major transformations in society,” she says. ...

Working with Maria Stephan, a researcher at the ICNC, Chenoweth performed an extensive review of the literature on civil resistance and social movements from 1900 to 2006 – a data set then corroborated with other experts in the field. They primarily considered attempts to bring about regime change. A movement was considered a success if it fully achieved its goals both within a year of its peak engagement and as a direct result of its activities. A regime change resulting from foreign military intervention would not be considered a success, for instance. A campaign was considered violent, meanwhile, if it involved bombings, kidnappings, the destruction of infrastructure – or any other physical harm to people or property. “We were trying to apply a pretty hard test to nonviolent resistance as a strategy,” Chenoweth says. ...

Overall, nonviolent campaigns were twice as likely to succeed as violent campaigns: they led to political change 53% of the time compared to 26% for the violent protests. ...

Once around 3.5% of the whole population has begun to participate actively, success appears to be inevitable.​

“There weren’t any campaigns that had failed after they had achieved 3.5% participation during a peak event,” says Chenoweth – a phenomenon she has called the “3.5% rule”​

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-c...

Greta Thunberg has received heavy criticism, been called mentally ill because she is on the autism spectrum, including from Canada's Maxime Bernier, and even had death threats from extreme right-wingers in her fight against climate change. She is not the only young person being attacked because of their support of climate action.

This url describes the death threats against Greta Thunberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QChDcw09QCk

On the morning of August 25, 11-year-old Lilly Platt tweeted a video clip of a Brazilian Amazon tribe speaking out against deforestation. Awareness of the Amazon wildfires was already at a fever pitch, and the tweet exploded. Then, within an hour, a swarm of troll accounts started flooding her mentions with porn.

Shortly after the attack, her mom, Eleanor Platt, made an online plea for help: “Dear Friends of Lilly, this is Lillys mum she is being targeted by revolting trolls who are spamming her feed with pornography. There is only so much i can do to block this. Please if you see these posts report them.” Over the course of the day, some of Lilly’s nearly 10,000 followers did just that. ...

Personal attacks have always been a part of the climate denial playbook, even as fossil fuel companies secretly funded campaigns and researchers to question the scientific consensus on climate change. The most famous incident, 2009’s Climategate, involved scientists getting their emails hacked and then facing death threats. ...

The clearest example of this is what's happening today with climate activism’s biggest star, Greta Thunberg. The 16-year-old Swedish crusader single-handedly launched the climate strike movement last year and has become the biggest target for attacks on climate activism online. Climate science deniers, right-wing media pundits, and politicians are the most high-profile figures fixating on everything from her braided hair to her Asperger’s to the motivation behind her strikes. ...

On August 14, as Greta set sail across the Atlantic for a packed trip involving multiple strikes, testimonies to Congress, and the United Nations climate summit in New York, former UK Independence Party funder Arron Banks tweeted that “Freak yachting accidents do happen in August.” Shortly after Greta’s arrival in the US, Maxime Bernier, a Canadian politician associated with extreme far-right groups, wrote: “She should be denounced and attacked.” A viral tweet from conservative firebrand Dinesh D’Souza after the global climate strike hit at another recurring theme: comparing Greta to children in Nazi propaganda. On Monday, a Fox News guest called her “mentally ill,” a jab at her Asperger’s diagnosis, prompting the outlet to issue an apology. Shortly after the UN summit, President Donald Trump tweeted sarcastically, “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” ...

Meanwhile, upward of 5,000 tweets by suspected bots have mentioned Greta, according to an analysis by Bot Sentinel provided to BuzzFeed News.

But it’s not just Greta. Other young girls in the movement are facing a flood of online abuse. It’s less clear where those attacks are coming from, but they involve a mix of regular accounts, trolls, and bots. While the youngest activists are often shielded from this, due to constant monitoring of their social media by their parents, there’s no filter for many of the teens. Jamie Margolin, a 17-year-old climate activist in Seattle, described how it felt experiencing a recent Twitter swarm: “You start getting so much anxiety.”

“The ugly truth is that these girls are subject to the deepest darkest evil side of social media on a daily basis,” Bethany Edwards, mom of 8-year-old climate activist Havana Chapman-Edwards, told BuzzFeed News in an email. Havana, who is black, has gotten racist messages, death threats, and was contacted by one man who the family later discovered was a registered sex offender.

Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University said she adds someone to her Twitter block list “on average at least once a day, if not more.” For Hayhoe, as the voices of the climate teens grow louder, there is increasingly a target pointed squarely on their backs. “They will attack anyone who is perceived as being effective,” she said. “The more effective we are, the greater the attacks.”

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/greta-thunberg-climate-t...

Even a right-wing columnist like John Ivison sees problems coming from the Montreal Student Strike for Climate Action, not only for Andrew Scheer, although it could help him with his 30-35% base, but also for  Trudeau.

Andrew Scheer quit Montreal under cover of darkness, just hours before hundreds of thousands of mainly young Canadians took to the streets to protest climate inaction.

Justin Trudeau, who is trying to rebuild his tattered credibility post-blackface with the young voters he needs to win, flew into town and may have wished he hadn’t. He nearly got egged by one protestor, was heckled by others, with chants of, “What about the pipeline” and received a public scolding from young Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, for not doing enough on climate change. Having Trudeau on the march was “like having an employer on the picket line” tweeted one environmentalist.

Scheer saved himself all of those headaches by heading to Vancouver. In truth, he may have had no choice. Such is the anger brewing over the Conservative Party’s environmental non-plan, his RCMP protective detail would probably have vetoed his participation. ...

But it was a strange decision, to say the least, to schedule an announcement to build more bridges, roads and tunnels on the same day as mass climate change protests across the country.

Scheer positioned the new infrastructure announcement as one that will benefit the environment. “We will take real concrete action that will lower emissions,” he said, suggesting that fewer cars idling will reduce pollution.

That flies in the face of all the evidence on induced demand – that if you build more roads and bridges, more drivers will come. But is instructive of Scheer’s attitude to the issue of climate change and the way he talks about it to his particular audience. ...

Scheer is an upgrade from Conservatives of yesteryear, who publicly decried the green movement as radical ideologues. “I believe Canadians want government to take the environment seriously. That’s why we have a real plan,” he said.

He acknowledges global warming as a climactic and political phenomenon. But it is not paramount for Conservatives – it is not even one of their prevailing considerations. They believe that they can win government by campaigning on pocketbook issues and appealing to the people battling to make ends meet. That appears to mean turning a blind-eye to the tragedy of the commons unfolding before our eyes. Opponents will call that a cynical, short-sighted and obscene strategy. But it may prove to be a successful one.

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/election-2019/john-ivison-opponen...

Karl Nerenberg has an excellent article on the complacency of much of the boomer generation in Canada about climate change as young people fight to avoid a catastrophic future if we fail to deal effectively with global warming. He describes how our country is a major global emitter and producer of fossil fuels well beyond what our population would suggest. 

While young people in Canada are taking part in the global climate strike, some of my baby boomer generation are, however timidly, expressing solidarity and support. But a good many others are at best bemused and indifferent; at worst, openly hostile to the anguish and anger of the young.

I know fellow baby boomers who take comfort in the fact that, in the aggregate, Canada, only contributes two per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

We are only 38 million, they say. We might be wealthy enough to be included in the G7, but we are only a medium-size country. What we contribute to global warming has got to be tiny, compared to much larger countries, such as the U.S., China, India, Russia and Germany.

Those are, indeed, comforting thoughts for those among us who want to get back into their SUVs and book this coming winter's flights to a sunny destination. 

But before we wallow too happily in our complacency, consider this: Although by population we rank 39th, when it comes to total emissions we are ninth in the world. 

Canada's total carbon dioxide emissions for 2016 were 541 million tonnes. That was more than Indonesia's, which has eight times our population, or Brazil's with more than five times our population. 

And even if we only compare ourselves to fellow affluent G7 countries, in 2016, Canada emitted 170 million tonnes more than the U.K., in excess of 200 million tonnes more than Italy, and 250 million tonnes more than France. 

Things get even worse for Canada when you consider per capita emissions.

As a country, we in Canada emit 14.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per person. The per capita figure for Japan is 9 million tonnes, for Germany 8.9 million tonnes, and for France it is less than a third of ours, 4.5 million tonnes. 

When it comes to per capita emissions, only three countries exceed ours: Australia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. ...

The fact is that, by and large, we do not plan our towns and cities, or our urban transit, or our agriculture, or our lifestyles to minimize our consumption of greenhouse gas producing energy. 

We overheat in the winter and maniacally use air conditioning in the summer. And we design our urban spaces in such a way that, for a huge number of us, every little task in life -- from buying a litre of milk to availing ourselves of medical services to getting to our jobs -- requires the use of the private automobile. 

There are vast regions of Canada's urban landscape where it is, literally, dangerous to walk. If you were to try to get somewhere on foot you would have to navigate streets that are, in reality, virtual highways -- long, dark, lonely stretches of road that make no provision for pedestrians, or, for that matter, cyclists. 

It is also true, of course, that we have a large and economically important industry devoted to exploiting fossil fuel. And much of that fuel is extremely difficult to extract, locked as it is in the inhospitable environment of the tar sands. To get at our reserves of oil and gas, a good part of our industry must produce massive volumes of emissions.

And so, on the one hand, our way of life means that we casually and heedlessly produce far more emissions than most similar countries, while, on the other, our continued prosperity is tied up in the powerful industry which extracts and sells the fuel that creates the emissions. 

No wonder a good many more mature Canadians will keep their distance while the young try to convince us to consider a future beyond the current fiscal year.

http://rabble.ca/news/2019/09/message-youth-climate-strike-threatens-com...

https://globalnews.ca/news/5968266/university-of-alberta-vice-president-resigns-following-controversial-billboard/

Although the United Nations did not allow Raoni Metuktire, Chief of the Kayapo people of the Brazilian Amazon, Greta Thunberg made sure she kicked off the Montreal Student Strike for Climate Action with Canadian indigenous leaders in an 18 minute ceremony in the video below that was shown on the CBC. The video of the ceremony can be seen at the url below. She has more wisdom than our politicians. 

"Greta Thunberg was welcomed by Indigenous leaders before a climate march in Montreal. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPKwKQVNy44

Teen activist Greta Thunberg receives a gift from Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde before joining the global climate strike in Montreal on Sept. 27, 2019. REUTERS/ANDREJ IVANOV

In the video above Ghislain Picard, Quebec Regional Cheif of the Assembly of First Nations, said at the indigenous ceremony:

So it is very important to recognize our traditional protocols in recognizing the effort of our sister Greta in convening everyone, our young people, our elders to the challenge we have before us. I just gave her a present on behalf of indigenous women in testimony of their support of her journey. 

Perry Bellegarde, Assembly of First Nations National Chief

We have honoured and thanked this young warrior lady for her work. But as well I want to thank Cedric (Gray-Lehoux ,youth spokesperson for the Assemblée des Premières Nations Québec-Labrador) and Daisy and all these others (First Nations) back here that started the movement here. With Greta being here it helps in building that good strength, that good energy. What we say now that this is not just an issue for Canada, climate destruction is a global issue and when we acknowledge in our ceremonies we always say 'Let's put our mother first'. ... But there is one Mother who gives life to all, Mother Earth.

First Nations woman 

We have a national committe on climate action. We have been so moved by what you (Greta) have done for all human beings around the world. As part of our protocols, coming from the North, a place that is warming faster than anywhere else, we have a gift for you from the North, a bracelet with a wolf on it to remind you of all the indigenous people around the world. We are from the Wolf clan. Thank you.