Posted: Friday, 22 April 2011

April 22 — Earth Day — a time to celebrate the Earth, but with that celebration comes the recognition of the need to come together to live more sustainably. As individuals, we all know we must reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, water, electricity, disposable products, and more; reuse whenever we can; and recycle where facilities exist.

Collectively, there’s even more we can do, like retrofitting our homes and buildings so they are more energy efficient, rapidly expanding renewable energy, public transit, and high speed rail. This Earth Day, let’s remind those who are campaigning to form Canada’s next government that they must take urgent action by:

• supporting energy retrofits;
• expanding renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, while reducing our reliance on fossil fuels;
• creating new green jobs;
• taxing polluters to take responsibility for their outputs;
• ensuring Canada does its part to achieve a global climate change treaty instead of being an international embarrassment; and
• committing to a public “national transit strategy.”

Climate change is already having an impact on our jobs, our environment, our economy, and our lives. The next government can’t continue to ignore this global problem. We need to elect leaders who will do their fair share, and take action on the environment. We are getting things done individually in our homes and workplaces, but we need to demand better of our politicians. We desperately need to elect political leaders with a vision for the environment.

If we had a federal government which stepped up its responsibility on the environment, we could create thousands of green jobs, expand domestic manufacturing, make our cities more liveable, reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals, as well as protect water and wildlife. This Earth Day, think of what an ambitious and visionary political leader could do to improve the government of our country and the planet. Now, let’s elect politicians who are committed to the environment. This election, let's take action to make the world a better place. Happy Earth Day!