It’s Not Just About Polar Bears: Panel on climate justice in Nova Scotia

WHAT: “A People’s Forecast” launch and panel featuring local analysis and voices from climate-affected communities in Nova Scotia.
WHEN: Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 7-9pm

WHERE: Mi’kmaq Native Friendship Centre, 2158 Gottingen St, Halifax

Across Canada and around the globe, people are organizing to highlight the human impacts of climate change, and to make sure our solutions focus on social justice, equality and empowerment—not just buying carbon offsets for BP’s latest oil spill. This year, The Dominion, Canada’s grassroots news magazine, made a commitment to tell some of those stories with “A People’s Forecast," the 2011 special issue on climate justice.

Join the Halifax Media Co-op and the Nova Scotia Coalition for Climate Action to launch “A People’s Forecast,” with a panel featuring local analysis and voices from climate-affected communities in Nova Scotia.

Speakers will include:

Elizabeth Marshall, a teacher and grandmother in Eskasoni with a deep knowledge of the L’nu oral traditions. She will share the L’nu traditions of respecting the Earth and each other, and how that might help us through the climate crisis.

Peter Boyles, who lives in Trenton, NS, and, since 1999, has been fighting Nova Scotia Power’s use of coal. Boyles founded the Hillside Trenton Environment Watch in 2005 due to the health impacts emissions from Nova Scotia Power’s Trenton Generating Station were having on his community.

Tamara Lorincz, a mother, peace activist, and currently on the board of EcoJustice Canada. She will discuss climate change impacts of militarization and the urgent need for the peace and environmental movements to work together to achieve climate justice.

Lukas Swan, Assistant Professor of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Dalhousie University and on the board of the Colchester-Cumberland Wind Field, which is currently building an 800 kW wind turbine near Tatamagouche. Swan will discuss the struggles and benefits of community-based and community-owned wind energy

Contact hillary@mediacoop.ca for more information or to get involved.

And be sure to check out our liveblog of the event at http://twitter.com/hfxmediacoop