June 29, 2023
Yesterday there was a Climate rally at the Kingston City Hall. Kingston was the first city in Canada to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ some years ago, but has largely relied on that distinction ever since. The rally was to start at noon, in conjunction with thirty others across the country. I had worked outside a bit, earlier that morning and the air had been fine, even though the air quality was predicted to be affected by smoke from wildfires later in the day. We were maskless.
When Judy and I arrived, we saw that over half the people were masked. I thought ‘COVID’, out of habit. Stupid me. Within about ten minutes the cloud descended. Not visually dark, but very smellable and acrid. I’d been fighting a sore throat and cough for a couple of weeks and soon it became apparent that I just couldn’t stay.
This was the first time I’ve been directly affected by wildfires/climate change. I could only think of the many people, here and around the world who can’t retreat inside a cool and filtered home. How lucky I am. And how utterly stupid it is for any of us to not change our habits in order to make the future less drear. If it’s this bad now, just imagine next year and ….
Here in Canada, we broke the record for forest-fires a couple of weeks ago, and the official fire season doesn’t start until July 1! This is not a small change, folks. I doubt that any of us have things to do that are more important than trying to make a difference to the big picture. Every item we buy, counts. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, our heating and cooling sources, how we invest our money: it all makes a difference.
How about asking some friends to sit down and strategize as to how your lives can be changed so to make a difference? If we do this with others, there’s a much greater chance of doing something real. If we try to face this alone, we don’t have a chance. Make it into a party. It will be great news for your grandchildren.
Mainly staying inside today and catching up on-line and cleaning my room and workshop.
Anthony
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Anthony Gifford
118 Ford Street Kingston, ON K7K4Z6
Judy’s phone number 613 985 1029
anthonygifford42@gmail.comS
