Climatefast Report 1

Frances Deverell, Raven, and Dewan Afzal, originator of the fast

I attended the fast on the hill on Day 1 and met Lyn Adamson (A Quaker from Toronto) and Sylvia, Raven, Victor, and other fantastic and courageous people. They have taken on this task to raise the heat on our politicians about climate leadership.  Raven is supporting the work of Polly Higgins, author of Eradicating Ecocide and self-appointed lawyer for the earth.  (http://eradicatingecocide.com/).  This is a movement against our society’s current trend of completely destroying land and ecosystems through industrialized mining such as takes place in the tar sands, the coal mining area of West Virginia, and the planned for quarry in Dufferin County.  Raven feels that the goals of Climatefast and the goals of Eradicating Ecocide are in alignment.  She decided to join the fast as a good way to get the message out.

The next two days I have focused my energy on getting the word out about the fast, and the importance of letting our leaders know how we feel. We hope people will at least support us by writing letters. 

Although I am not suffering from hunger with two small meals a day, the fast has affected me the most from giving up my car for 12 days.  I am becoming an avid cyclist.  Yesterday my challenge was to find a safe cycle route from Overbrook, where I live, across the railway and the 417 to the next area just south of us where the General Hospital is.  The only routes are both major freeways, multiple lane, with no bike lane, lots of traffic, and hills beyond my ability.  Fortunately, I found that if I was willing to go out of my way, the river path could get me most of the way I needed to take.  I had the bonus of being in nature a good part of the trip, on a beautiful day! 

I remembered my trip in the early seventies to Europe.  In rural France I noticed that many people were getting around on bicycles or mopeds (bicycles with a small motorized assist.) In Germany I noticed that people were not using their cars all the time.  They didn’t have any gas in them.  If we decided to go somewhere, the owner of the car would carefully calculate how much gas they would need to do that, and put that much in. 

Perhaps, we in Canada will be much more careful when we get in the car and use gasoline to get somewhere in the near future.  Maybe we’ll become a nation much more committed to cycling.  Ecology Ottawa is doing a great job of pushing our city to open up new bike lanes.  It’s a good thing I am building my confidence now to ride a bike anywhere in the city while I am still relatively young.  (64).  Maybe I’ll be able to continue to do this for some time to come.