| If you see Santa Claus at the mall this holiday season, he may not be the chubby philanthropist of yore – he could be a decrepit homeless man washed out of the North Pole by global warming.
A group of local activists are touring parts of the city with a Santa Claus who has been left homeless by the melting of Canada’s polar ice caps, caused by climate change. They also delivered a lump of coal to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein for his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists around the world have linked to climate change.
Steve Loo, an organizer of the event, says the activists are trying to shake Calgarians up with their own holiday message – that global warming is already having a severe impact on parts of Canada, and it will take more than just the Kyoto Protocol to reverse the trend.
"Kyoto is an important first step, but we need a lot more than just Kyoto," Loo says.
Their message is serious, but the group is using a sense of humour to get it across. Loo says Santa may be accompanied by the Radical Cheerleaders and the Raging Grannies, two activist groups that turn heads for their unique approach to civil disobedience.
"The North Pole is melting and thus Santa’s home is being destroyed because of climate change," Loo says. "We trying to use a sense of humour… but the polar ice caps help stabilize global temperatures by a huge amount so this is every important."
Even the lump of coal has dual significance for the group – Klein has been "naughty" by campaigning against the Kyoto Protocol, and the coal points out the Alberta government’s reliance on dirty fossil fuels.
Loo isn’t worried their message will be diluted by the federal government’s acceptance of the Kytoto Protocol last week. He says the issue goes beyond politics, and truly addressing the problem will require much more than signing the agreement, which will see Canada reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by six per cent below what they were in 1990 by 2012.
The group will be handing out pamphlets for the David Suzuki Foundation’s Nature Challenge, which urges individual Canadians to make a commitment to reduce their own environmental impact.
Loo says he knows such activism is a tough sell in a petro-friendly city, especially with so much anxiety over the potential economic fallout of the Kyoto Protocol, but the arctic is already feeling the consequences of climate change and Calgarians shouldn’t turn their backs on other Canadians.
"Long-term climate change is going to hurt more than a bad economic year," Loo says. |
