Gore, Suzuki will address youth climate summit
The first ever Youth Action Montreal (YAM) Summit dealing with climate change will take place on March 20-22 under the title Less Talk, More Action.
The YAM summit was the inspiration of Concordia Political Science students Mohamed Shuriye and Peter Schiefke in the summer of 2006.
“We recognized that the environment was a hot button issue,” Schiefke said. As students, they saw the benefits of mobilizing students across the country.
“Students are already involved in groups like Equiterre and Greenpeace, but there is no coordination,” Shuriye said. So they brought the CSU, the Arts and Science Federation of Associations, R4, Sustainable Concordia and the Students Society of McGill University together and began to plan big.
The result is a three-day conference, ending March 22 with keynote speeches from both former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore and home-grown environmentalist David Suzuki. “Suzuki has spoken here more than any other single speaker,” Schiefke said. The David Suzuki Foundation is also involved.
Organizers rejected the idea of presenting speakers to a passive audience. “We didn’t want people to just see them and leave,” Shuriye said. The speeches will crown a series of skills-building and information-sharing workshops at the Palais de Congrès. About 200 students are expected to participate.
Shuriye and Schiefke considered the estimated 13 million plastic bags and the five million coffee cups students use annually and decided they could change that. So the “1% campaign” was born.
Days after the conference, during Concordia’s student elections, students will vote on a referendum to turn one per cent of their tuition — 25 cents per credit— over to a board of local student and environmental leaders for a five-year pilot project to coordinate concrete sustainability efforts.
Organizers anticipate that the $875,000 such an effort will raise over five years will allow Concordia to set the standard in becoming the most environmentally sound university in the country. Although local solutions may not be applicable nationally, they hope to create a template for similar programs across the country.
Schiefke is confident that students will jump on board. “We’re asking students if they want to spend this money. The government and the university don’t ask before they raise costs, students are free to say no.”