{"id":31809,"date":"2019-02-08T03:57:51","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T11:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31809"},"modified":"2019-02-07T13:52:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T21:52:06","slug":"climate-crisis-a-top-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/02\/08\/climate-crisis-a-top-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate crisis a top priority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teen activists talk with Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart at a climate-strike action on Dec. 7. (photo from Rebecca Hamilton)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be our future, so it\u2019s up to us to take it into our own hands and show that, even if we can\u2019t vote, we can still make a difference in our communities and the world,\u201d Malka Martz-Oberlander told the Jewish Independent<\/em> when she and fellow activist and friend Rebecca Hamilton met with the paper to discuss recent \u2013 and future \u2013 efforts to draw awareness to the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

The two high school students are part of the group Sustainabiliteens, which was inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Last year, Thunberg started monthly school strikes, stating that preparing for a future that won\u2019t have a livable climate was pointless. The strikes, called \u201cFridays for Future,\u201d have spread to at least 270 countries, including Canada.<\/p>\n

Inspired by Thunberg, strike action took place at Vancouver City Hall on Jan. 16, the day that Vancouver city council unanimously passed a motion put forward by Councilor Christine Boyle (OneCity) to declare a climate emergency. Similar motions have been adopted in other cities, including London, Los Angeles and Oakland, but Vancouver is the first in Canada to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is already impacting the people of Vancouver and will continue to. We need to respond to this crisis urgently and compassionately with a path towards a more equitable society,\u201d said Boyle in a release. \u201cAdequately addressing the climate emergency won\u2019t be easy, but we are a smart city, capable of doing difficult things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton was an organizer of the strike at City Hall, and the groups Force of Nature and Extinction Rebellion Vancouver also supported the action. There was a previous school walkout and strike for the climate on Dec. 7, said Martz-Oberlander. She and Hamilton are among a growing number of Metro Vancouver teens coming together in what Martz-Oberlander describes as a \u201cshared passion for climate justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith some of my friends, it\u2019s just doom and gloom,\u201d said Martz-Oberlander. \u201cThere\u2019s this sense of this is all going to happen and no one can do anything, so why do anything? It\u2019s out of our hands, we\u2019re just kids…. But there\u2019s also a lot of people that I know who are hopeful and see the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ask kids about the climate crisis,\u201d said Hamilton, \u201cthey say that they think it\u2019s a real problem and they\u2019re scared. But the world around us doesn\u2019t recognize what\u2019s happening with the same sense of urgency that we feel. We are living in a confusing and weird time. On the one hand, we understand the science, we\u2019re being told the scientific facts that we\u2019re in a crisis. We\u2019re being told these very conflicting messages, and there\u2019s this dissonance. So what am I supposed to believe? The world is just going as normal, but why are you telling me then that we\u2019re in this crisis and everything needs to change? I think that\u2019s really frustrating. Me, personally, every day I\u2019m frustrated by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Martz-Oberlander and Hamilton grew up in the Vancouver Jewish community and say their Jewish values inform their activism. Martz-Oberlander\u2019s family has been involved with Congregation Or Shalom since before she was born, and Hamilton grew up going to Temple Sholom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Torah, it talks about needing to pass down this world better than we got it,\u201d said Martz-Oberlander. \u201cThat\u2019s the concept of l\u2019dor v\u2019dor<\/em>, \u2018from generation to generation.\u2019 The Jewish teaching that really influenced me is the sense of responsibility towards future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCamp Miriam was most important to me in cultivating my Jewish identity,\u201d said Hamilton. \u201cI think it played a huge role in what I\u2019m doing and why I care about it. The focus on youth agency, being told we could create change. It\u2019s tikkun olam \u2013 environmentalism and climate justice is the most important way to try and help other people and create a more just world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
On Jan. 16, students walked out of school to be at Vancouver City Hall to raise awareness of the climate crisis and support Councillor Christine Boyle\u2019s motion to declare a climate emergency. (photo from Rebecca Hamilton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both teens avoid the word \u201cclimate change,\u201d preferring instead to talk of the \u201cclimate crisis\u201d or \u201cclimate emergency\u201d and the need for \u201cclimate justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change doesn\u2019t sound urgent enough,\u201d said Martz-Oberlander. \u201cIt\u2019s an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI prefer climate emergency or climate crisis,\u201d said Hamilton, who cites Jewish writer and activist Naomi Klein as an important influence on her thinking. \u201cIt\u2019s not about preventing this catastrophe but about healing the foundation of our world. The climate crisis is a manifestation of these unjust worldly systems which exploit nature, animals and people, so fixing that manifestation will also mean fixing those systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton and Martz-Oberlander were inspired to join the climate-strike movement after it came to Canada with a strike in Sudbury, Ont., led by 11-year-old Sofia Mather.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I have been concerned about climate change my whole life,\u201d said Hamilton, \u201cbut I began to want to do something when I realized that nothing else really matters if we live on a dead planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton and Martz-Oberlander are currently preparing for a Canada-wide school strike on May 3, and have a local action planned for Feb. 15.<\/p>\n

Matthew Gindin <\/strong>is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He is Pacific correspondent for the <\/em>CJN, writes regularly for the <\/em>Forward, <\/em>Tricycle and the <\/em>Wisdom Daily, and has been published in <\/em>Sojourners, <\/em>Religion Dispatches and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teen activists talk with Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart at a climate-strike action on Dec. 7. (photo from Rebecca Hamilton) \u201cIt\u2019s going to be our future, so it\u2019s up to us to take it into our own hands and show that, even if we can\u2019t vote, we can still make a difference in our communities and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3203,8684,3076,2845,8685,3597,8687,8686,3753],"class_list":["post-31809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-crisis","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-malka-martz-oberlander","tag-politics","tag-rebecca-hamilton","tag-sustainabiliteens","tag-youth"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}