If you’re just tuning in after summer, things are getting pretty real out there. Hurricane Dorian devastated low-lying communities in the Bahamas, Brazilian agricultural businesses are torching the dried-out Amazon Rainforest and Greenland lost more than 12 billion tonnes of ice in one day.

Climate change is everywhere. But so is the movement to combat it. 

Activists shut down London, England for weeks earlier this year. Indigenous communities the world over are fighting for their territories in the face of carbon extraction. Young people everywhere are walking out of classes to demand urgent action to salvage their future. 

It’s time we all join them.

As inspiring as the student strikes are, we cannot simply leave this struggle to the next generation. Their stark moral clarity must inspire us to action and we must be every bit as bold.

That’s why today I’m asking you to take the day off on Sept. 27 and join the climate strikes in your community. Bring your coworkers, family and friends. Together we’ll pull the planet back from the brink of mass extinction and build communities that will last. 

Join the Wilderness Committee Sept. 27 at climate strikes near us:

• Vancouver — 1 p.m. at City Hall, 453 W 12 Ave
• Victoria — 12 p.m. at Provincial Legislature, 501 Belleville Street
• Winnipeg — 12 p.m. at Provincial Legislature, 450 Broadway
• Toronto — 11 a.m. at Queen’s Park, 111 Wellesley Street W

Or find a climate strike in your community at Climate Strike Canada.

I’ll be honest, the fight ahead is daunting. But I’m blown away when I look back at the last 12 months and see how far we’ve come. We can, must and will change faster than the climate — and it will be thanks to folks like you who make their voices heard.