leap_year

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

We are fast approaching February 29, the beginning of the 2016 Leap Year. Every four years we add a day to our calendars to bring them into sync with the earth’s revolution around the sun — because it’s easier to change our human systems than to change the laws of nature.

To celebrate the Leap Year, groups in Canada and around the world are holding events to push for a justice-based transition away from fossil fuels and towards new economic and energy systems. From Vancouver to Prince Edward Island, Salt Lake City to Zagreb, there are teach-ins, film screenings, community forums, mobilisations and more:

 

  • In Nelson, B.C. high school students are organizing a 24-hour Leap Day sit-in with workshops and local speakers to push the government on bold climate action.
  • In Zagreb, Friends of the Earth Croatia are hosting a film screening and panel discussion titled “Climate change as an opportunity for building a more just world.”
  • In Peterborough, Ontario, community activists are holding an event celebrating and building on a forum held earlier in February that drew hundreds of people to discuss and commit to local actions suggested by the Leap Manifesto.
  • In Fort Chipewyan, the Keepers of the Athabasca and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation are hosting a Leap Day installation of solar panels at the local Youth and Elders’ centre.
  • In New York, Bronx Climate Justice North will host a Leap Day discussion and will hold a vote to adopt their own version. 
  • Across Canada, 10 Council of Canadians chapters are mobilizing for Leap Year, holding events and activities calling for action on climate change.
  • On Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Naomi Klein and other leaders will stand with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to launch a new campaign to turn the postal offices into green community hubs powering Canada’s next economy.

 

With scores of groups holding dozens of events around the world, it’s clear there is powerful momentum to make 2016 a true Leap Year for the climate justice movement.

To find an event near you, or learn how to host your own, visit leapyear2016.org.

 

About the Leap Manifesto

Canada’s Leap Manifesto has garnered more than 30,000 signatories and close to 200 organizational endorsements, including national nonprofits, major unions, religious groups, and a multi-million dollar corporation. CNN called it “a model for the world” during the UN climate negotiations in Paris in December, and parallel initiatives are underway in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and the United States.

 

 

Ready for more? 

 

 

For questions about Leap Year events or other queries, email Bianca Mugyenyi, Outreach Coordinator for the Leap Manifesto, at [email protected].

 

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

Bianca Mugyenyi

Bianca Mugyenyi is an author and the director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. She is the co-author with Yves Engler of Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and...