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Fridays for Future Calgary Newsletter - April

Welcome to the Fridays For Future Calgary Newsletter! Our newsletter is sent monthly and includes updates from our group, climate and environmental news and ways to take action! If you enjoy this newsletter, tell your friends and family to sign up too!

We're Monthly Now!

Due to a large volume of work in other areas and low capacity within our team, Fridays For Future Calgary has decided to make our newsletter monthly, rather than biweekly. Don’t worry, we’ll still be sending out updates about more pressing campaigns and events when necessary!

What We've Been Up To

Climate Live Canada

On April 9th, a few of our members took to the Peace Bridge to take promotional photos for Climate Live Canada. You can find the photos on our Instagram.

Climate Live is a collection of simultaneous global concerts organized by musicians and youth climate activists alike. Through music, they aim to engage and educate new audiences about the dangers of climate change and ecological breakdown. They hope that these concerts will amplify the pressure on global leaders to combat the climate crisis and empower youth in the fight for climate justice.

The first concert, which was last Saturday was a blast! Follow them on Instagram or Facebook for more updates before the October 16th concert.

Climate Strike Canada and Biden’s Climate Summit

On April 22nd and 23rd, President Biden and forty other world leaders gathered in a virtual summit to discuss how the world’s largest economies can do to combat the climate crisis.

Youth around the world were sceptical about this summit, with all the empty summits and empty promises we've been given in the past. Fridays for Future Calgary is a part of Climate Strike Canada and we recommend you read their statement which was written prior to the summit.

Ultimately, the targets Canada announced at the summit weren’t enough. You can read more in their digital strike post. If you look really closely, you might recognize a few of the strikers from Fridays For Future Calgary.

Weekly Strikes Are Cancelled Until Further Notice

Due to the continuous rise in COVID-19 cases in Calgary, and the new restrictions put in place by the government, we will not be holding any in-person strikes until further notice. We will continue to keep our presence online strong, and we invite you to keep striking digitally with us! Stay tuned!

Latest Media & Blog Posts

Take the pledge to stop banking on fossil fuels! Divest Canada and Climate Strike Canada have launched their youth pledge, Banking on a Better Future, where youth and people of all ages can pledge to stop banking on fossil fuels as soon as they can. Youth across so-called Canada are pledging to cut ties with the Big 5 Canadian Banks until they divest from fossil fuels and make meaningful commitments to climate, Indigenous sovereignty, and all forms of life. You can sign the pledge here.

Can you hear us yet? We need climate justice, and we need it now. That’s why, on April 24th, youth-led Climate Live held concerts for climate action in more than 40 different countries including Canada! We thank all who watched the concern and hope it left you feeling empowered!

On the 22nd and 23rd of April, President Biden hosted a Leaders’ Summit on Climate for 40 “world leaders” to talk about their far off net-zero targets. These same “leaders” have been spewing the same empty promises for years. But how about talking to the real climate leaders instead? The real leadership is with the people on the streets! Virtual protests were held using the hashtag #NoMoreEmptySummits to call on world leaders for climate action.

On earth day, it's easy to get caught up in the performative posts by big polluters and politicians or feel shame for not living the perfect sustainable lifestyle shown by so many eco-influencers. However, we must remember, the climate crisis will not be solved through only individual actions but by systemic change. On earth day, we asked you to take a moment to step back, reflect on the world we live in, your role in the movement, how far we’ve come, and rest if you need to.

Commit the government to hold ReconAfrica responsible for the damages they’ve done while participating in oil and gas exploration in the protected region of Kavango Basin in Namibia and Botswana. By signing this petition you’re telling our government that it is important for Canadian companies to respect international commitments to protecting biodiverse regions and the people that reside in them.

News

Find out how climate change is affecting our world and what's being done about it.

350.org Canada has launched a campaign encouraging the federal NDP and Green parties to form an alliance of sorts, to get more MPs committed to fighting the climate crisis elected.

Here’s the rundown of what different countries pledged at Biden’s climate summit last week.

Tiny Hummingbird Stops Construction of the Transmountain Pipeline in British Columbia for four months!

Banking on a Better Future Youth pledge

On April 1st, a group of grassroots youth organizers from across so-called Canada launched their Banking on a Better Future campaign! Divest Canada and Climate Strike Canada, whom we regularly organize with, came together to put pressure on the Canadian banks to end their financing of the climate crisis!

Canadian banks, RBC, TD, Scotia Bank, BMO, and CIBC, are among the top global funders of fossil fuels. And youth across Canada are pledging to keep their money away from the Big 5. As long as these banks keep funding the fossil fuel industry, they have no place in our lives and future.

Sign the Pledge

In signing this pledge, we stand in solidarity with Indigenous grassroots organizers who have been leading the charge against fossil fuel financing for years.

You can find more information on Climate Strike Canada’s Facebook post or their Instagram!

Interested in joining Fridays for Future Calgary?

If you’re under 25 years of age and are interested in becoming more involved in intersectional climate activism in Calgary, we’d love to have you in our group! Depending on your interests, you can join our media committee, newsletter committee, or self-care committee! Message us on Instagram or send us an email and we can schedule a video call for you to meet a few members and get more familiar with what we do.

If you’re 25 or older, we can also help you get in touch with other climate groups around the city!