By Andrea Loewen
@ms_andreajoy

This summer we saw an entire village in BC burn down, we saw the ocean catch on fire, we saw rain — for the first time ever — on the ice caps of Greenland. Finally, the IPCC released a report giving us 10 years to make urgent changes to stem the most extreme impacts of climate change.

Corrin Yewchuk is a Vancouver volunteer coordinator with 350 Canada, an organization that describes itself as “a people-powered movement for climate action.”

“I think the most important thing is to really drive that this is a crisis,” says Yewchuk on the climate emergency. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about it in any other terms at this juncture.”

Yewchuk got involved with 350 in December of 2020, “I did what a lot of people are doing now, a lot of doom scrolling,” she says. “I was reading articles about the climate crisis and I didn’t know how to help. So I started Googling, you know, when it’s like 2 a.m. and you’re writing ‘how to help the climate crisis Vancouver’ into Google.”

She found 350 and discovered a small group of local people who, like her, cared about climate change and needed to take action. Because 350 operates as a decentralized network of activists, Yechuk was able to see the needs and step in where she thought she could help.

The projects have been varied: Yewchuk got involved helping create a video series about what it means to divest from fossil fuels, as well as took part in a national political action in July when climate activists visited the offices of 40 Members of Parliament from across the country.

The issue Yewchuk, 350, and most climate activists are trying to push now is political and systemic change over personal choices.

“A lot of people often try to have a gotcha,” says Yewchuk. “They’re like, you know, your shoes are made out of fossil fuels. I’m like, ‘yeah, but that’s the problem. We need to invest in totally different things. We need to modify the systems. Personal choice will not save us from anthropogenic climate change at this point.’”

On September 8, 350 is holding Canada is on Fire actions all across the country. These provocatively-named rallies are set to occur on the day of the French language leaders debate and the day before the English debate, as well as right before advanced polling opens. Their goal is to push urgent action on climate change to the forefront of the debates and people’s voting choices.

“We need to drive the discussion in that direction at this time, because I don’t think anyone has made commitments strong enough,” says Yewchuk.

“At this point, governments know what the problem is, we have these solutions, there’s no more time for delay or denial… it’s the government’s fault. But I feel like the media also has a role to play and that they are not asking the right questions. We need to hold their feet to the fire.”

The COVID pandemic has shown us that government can act swiftly and decisively to make big, systemic, and even expensive changes in an emergency, and Yewchuk is hoping that these actions will help force the politicians to treat the climate in a similar way.

“We have to deal with the reality of the situation, not what we wish the situation was,” she says. “Everything is too slow, net zero is a lie, and greenwashing is a thing. And we all know it. We’re just allowing [the politicians] to lie to us and to tell us that it’ll be okay.”

If you want to get involved, you can find your local Canada is on Fire action here (and you can volunteer to help coordinate one, too!) Yewchuk also encourages everyone to find a climate organization that they connect with, whether it is 350 or elsewhere, and volunteer.

“You can walk in off the street and have a real impact on this movement at this time,” she says.

Andrea Loewen is a writer, theatre-maker, and choreographer in Vancouver, BC. She writes for a variety of online publications, including Loose Lips Magazine and Vancouver Presents, as well as her own site, The Receptionist Blog. Her first book, Feeling Better: A Field Guide to Liking Yourself is available from Amazon and Chapters Indigo.  www.andrealoewen.com.