Guelph Climate Action Network
Greetings from GCAN- a new group that grew out of the Green New Deal Guelph Chapter.
We'll have more content soon. Here's our Vision and Mission Statements.
Email guelphclimateactionnetwork@gmail.com for more information, and if you'd like to subscribe to our newsletter or join our group!
VISION
We look towards a healthy, just and vibrant community that has, in a democratic, collaborative and constructive manner, found its way through the climate crisis into a truly long term sustainable development path.
MISSION
Our role in the community of Guelph is to foster an informed awareness of the nature of the climate crisis before us, in collaboration with other community groups identify ways and means to address the crisis in a timely manner, co-design community-based ways and means of alleviating the impacts and mitigating the worst outcomes, and advocate appropriate changes in policies and action in all sectors of the urban community, all toward a new path of sustainable community development.
HERE'S A LINK TO A RECENT ARTICLE ABOUT OUR GROUP IN GUELPH TODAY:
Managing our adaptation to climate change
is a community right and responsibility
A relatively new community volunteer group, the Guelph Climate Action Network (GCAN), is gaining momentum in supporting Guelph residents as they adapt to the growing challenges of rapid and uncertain climate change.
As the Earth has crossed the dangerous line of average temperatures exceeding the C 1.5 above pre-industrial level; as we head for intolerable heating and turbulent weather systems, and the havoc they wreak throughout the world, including Canada, and as the Secretary-General of the United Nations cries out for credible commitments and action on this existential crisis, we know that all of our life-lines are now at risk. While Guelph, and this part of Ontario, have remained in a safe ‘bubble’, when compared to the wildfires and flooding in the Maritimes, British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, and elsewhere, we know this will not last long. Our food supply, our drinking and wastewater infrastructure, and much more will increasingly become precarious. And our fossil fuel-based transportation, home heating, industrial plants, hospital, and much more will have to rapidly transition to a whole new reality as we run for what is called a net zero condition. Without this, we compromise our community’s very sustainability. And all of this by 2050.
The City, as a municipal corporation is engaged in addressing the net zero challenge. Targets and interim targets have been set. Public reporting on these is a commitment. All initiatives are now said to go through a “climate lens” before approval. The electrification of all City vehicles is a commitment. The new South Community Recreation Centre will be built and operated completely on a net zero basis. And now there is the Greener Guelph programme to energy retrofit our homes. Increasing residential densities in a growing city will not only make for better neighbourhoods, and more efficient use of all our resources, it will provide for energy efficiencies and less waste all round. So, the City is addressing its 3% share of greenhouse gas emissions, and will contribute significantly to the community as a whole addressing the other 97%.
However, it’s time for the community itself to step up and step out here, and take responsibility for making sure Guelph is a safe and sustainable home for our children, and our children’s children. How do we do this? We don’t know, and it will vary group by group, sector by sector across the community. Many community organizations, such as the Guelph Wellington Coalition for Social Justice, the Wellington Water Watchers, and others, are very concerned about the climate crisis. Climate change is sparing nobody. GCAN is set up to network and work with these and other community organizations, the City, the Chamber of Commerce, the University and Conestogo College, neighbourhood organizations, Indigenous groups, and any others to help them mobilize and get moving on the crisis agenda, to craft their own strategies for adaptation, to network and share, and to develop programmes for concrete implementation and management of the strategies. All interested groups in the community, whether they are in hospitality and tourism, in local transportation, in the arts and culture, in community health, in local food systems, in manufacturing industry, or whatever, need to organize and co-develop strategies to them get “from here to there”. It’s not going to happen on its own. The City will contribute, with the expectation that the community and its assorted patchwork of economic, social and other sectors must organize for action. Now!
GCAN has mapped out a very general, draft process for the community as whole to sketch, suggest and share a possible roadmap for all of us on this challenging journey. GCAN is in the process of sharing, and modifying this with groups, organizations, and sectors across the community. We need your help!
To contact GCAN, email guelphclimateactionnetwork@gmail.com
Watch our Powerpoint Presentation, created by David Douglas, about our Plan to support Guelph's ‘Net Zero by 2050’ aspirations
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xjIcwEec0z-v1DbVyxjfdI6MMAOkXeUd/edit#slide=id.p1