High school students Rohit Mehta, Angela Huang and Janet Chan are among those attending the third Canadian Youth Climate Coalition (CYCC) National Summit, which runs today through Sunday at the University of Alberta.
The conference is organized by the CYCC, a non-profit group comprised of labour unions, indigenous groups and other environmental groups from across Canada.
The main focus of the conference is the issue of the Alberta tar sands in the northern part of the province. Summit participants say the tar sands are a threat to the global climate and are the reason why Canada cannot meet its international obligation in that regard.
The Alberta tar sands represent a contentious issue because the area uses an environmentally unfriendly method of mining oil from a mixture of sand, clay and a dense and viscous form of petroleum called bitumen. Oil from the tar sands produces five times as many greenhouse gas emissions as conventional crude oil extraction.
The three Mississauga students are among the youngest participants at the summit. They're members of the Peel Environmental Youth Alliance (PEYA), a network of students from Peel concerned about environmental issues.
“We're trying to come up with solutions on ways to reduce our impact on climate,” said Mehta, who lives in Erin Mills. “We're basically getting together here to share ideas and create a plan to address the issue of tar sands and climate change in general. What's different about this summit is there are a lot of new groups, many of who work with youth, here.”
The students will attend workshops and share project ideas.
“We're all groups working on climate change issues,” Mehta said. “This summit is important because we will be discussing various events and programs that we as a group could put together around tar sands and climate change.”
Various youth groups from across Canada are in Edmonton for the conference, said summit coordinator Paul Baker.
On Friday, the conference features representatives from government, community groups and the indigenous community who'll talk about the tar sands and open the floor to questions.
“The goal is to come out with a youth-based campaign with the CYCC on climate change and get as many youths as possible from Canada to get involved with the organization,” Baker said.
For more information, visit www.ourclimate.ca.
rpanjwani@mississauga.net
