"I am not one who will sit and wait for the government to make a decision," was Wade Luzny’s response when I asked what he was doing at the COP17 in Durban.
Wade Luzny is a Canadian working with the Canadian Wildlife Federation. For a long time Canada has dragged the climate negotiations because of its lack of commitment. It has received a lot of Fossil awards from CAN International (Climate Action Network) during the COP meetings. The Fossil award is given on a daily basis to countries that drag the climate negotiation. It was therefore not much of a surprise when, as the COP started, Canada was said to have intentions of withdrawing from signing a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol.
This is what inspired me to talk to Wade Luzny, an exhibitor at the Canadian Wildlife Federation, to get his take on Canada’s setbacks in the climate negotiations. Wade noted that the approach being used is not right.
“The Canadian Government will do what the people want”, he said, adding that over 97% of Canadians do not believe that the climate changes are caused by human activities.
“It’s really hard to change the mindset of older people and the missing gap is that no one talks to the children”, Wade Luzny told me.
Imagine if sensitization on climate change had started 20 years ago in Canada? We would be having a whole new generation putting the Canadian government on pressure to committee itself to the global climatic agreements. But as of now the pressure from the Canadians is not sufficient to make their government respond to the global climate responsibilities.
Wade Luzny explained to me that in order to create a Canadian push for climate justice he and his like are trying to make the climate debate very basic to encourage people to appreciate their environment and the needs to protect and conserve it.
“We have brought it down to making people appreciate the smallest flower that attracts a butterfly near them to the forests that are a habitat of the wild beasts and thereby get people to pressure their government through information sharing,” Wade Luzny said.