Kids for Climate Action aims to engage youth on the environment

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      An articulate 17-year-old student at Prince of Wales secondary school is a key organizer of the No Enbridge rally, which is scheduled to take place at Science World at 2 p.m. on Saturday (November 16).

      Sam Harrison, a member of Kids for Climate Action, told the Straight and two reporters from Chinese-language media outlets on November 9 that his group has 100 volunteers signed up from high schools across the Lower Mainland. In addition, Harrison said that Kids for Climate Action has more than 2,000 people on its mailing list, as well as a website and a Twitter account.

      “We’re trying to get high-school students more involved in viewing environmental issues through a broader lens,” Harrison said in front of Science World, where he was handing out leaflets in advance of the demonstration. “People are trying to green their schools, which is good. What I think is really important is we need young people to speak up and try to have an impact on our broader society around these issues.”

      He explained that B.C. has been a leader in addressing climate change by introducing a carbon tax and developing progressive goals regarding greenhouse-gas emissions. However, he said that this will go to waste if all of the proposed infrastructure developments are approved for the export of oil, coal, and natural gas.

      “We’ll be exporting 10 times more carbon emissions than we emit ourselves [in B.C.],” Harrison said. “That’s not the economy we want for our future.”

      He was especially critical of Port Metro Vancouver’s consultation around proposals to facilitate the shipment of several thousand additional tonnes per year of coal.

      Harrison referred to coal as “the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel”.

      “We can now have a stronger, more resilient, better economy if we invest in clean energy and transit,” he said. “That’s the kind of thing my generation wants. We don’t want oil spills. We don’t want climate change. We do want green jobs and clean energy.”

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