'We need urgent action': Climate change rally to be held in Halifax

With another major weather system bearing down on the region, climate change is once again top of mind for many.

“We need urgent action” says Sadie Quinn.

Quinn and others plan to lead the charge, organizing Fridays’ Global Youth Rally for Climate Change in Halifax.

“This is our future we’re talking about. Climate change is obviously here now, it’s not something that is coming in the future but it’s only going to get worse,” Quinn says. “We would like to be able to have long and happy lives and have careers and raise children.”

On the heels of post-tropical storm Fiona, a February deep freeze, fires, and floods, Rae Steeves says Nova Scotians have heard the alarm bells and are ready to react.

“I do think that Nova Scotia is waking up, people are getting angrier but I do think that it’s really about time and that we should take that anger and fuel it into action,” says Steeves.

“We are really proud and honoured to stand with the youth on this,” says Joanne Bull, a community engagement officer with the Ecology Action Centre.

Bull says giving youth a voice is important and she hopes the government is listening. She wants climate issues to become a focal point for policy makers.

“We really need the government to make good on their promises that they’ve made already. We have to stop burning coal in this province, we need some form of coastal protection, we need to protect those areas of the landscape that we have identified as being ecologically important Bull says.”

“We’ve seen a lot of political squabbling, we’ve seen a lot of delay tactics on even some of the most basic pieces of legislation like the coastal protection act that’s trying to protect Nova Scotia from things like sea level rise and storm surge.”

Rally organizers say they’ll keep putting pressure on the decision makers.

“We’re going to keep striking until the government takes genuine action,” Steeves says.

That’s a point they, and youth around the world, hope to make at tomorrow's rallies.

Friday’s event starts at city hall at 12:30 p.m.

The group will then march through the streets of downtown Halifax, before returning to city hall for speeches at Grande Parade.

Last year’s event was cancelled by post-tropical storm Fiona.

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