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particularly hard to ignore. So three years after Watt’s class had ignited a fire in Grames-Webb, she found herself standing on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery with several other students, declaring Vancouverite Zoe Gramesthat it was time for the federal Webb is part of a 15-person government to pay attention. Less lawsuit against the Canadian than a week after the federal election government. All the plaintiffs last October, 15 young Canadians are under 18 years old. from across the country came together in Vancouver at a climate by Nathan Caddell rally to announce their intention to sue the government for its part in the climate crisis. zoe grames-webb was 10 years The plaintiffs are represented old when she started learning about by two B.C. law firms and claim climate change. A few years later, in the suit that the government’s she filed a lawsuit against the federal “contribution” to climate change government. infringes on their Charter rights, “My teacher did our entire term such as equality, as young people on climate change and green energy are disproportionately affected by projects,” says the now-13-year-old about False Creek Elementary’s Peter the issue. They’re also calling on the feds to come up with a “rigorous and Watt. “I hadn’t learned much about it before, but it really sparked an interest credible climate plan” that will reduce greenhouse gases. for me and a passion.” When the lawsuit—organized It also hit home personally for in part by American non-profit Our Grames-Webb, who has spent every Children’s Trust—started gaining summer of her life at her family’s some support, Grames-Webb’s cabin in Hopkins Landing, a small mother, Annabel Webb, a David coastal community near Gibsons. Suzuki Foundation fellow, asked her Wildfires in the area were killing off Western red cedars, shoreline erosion daughter if she was interested. She was. And though she allows threatened to destroy a significant that her mother has undoubtedly stretch of the area—it was all
Gang Green
shaped her interest in the subject, she maintains that it would be important to her regardless. “I still would have been quite passionate about the environment,” says Grames-Webb. “I might not have gone into the lawsuit, but I would have interest in climate change for sure.” Joining the suit required all plaintiffs to submit a section about how and why climate change has affected their Charter rights. To that end, Grames-Webb submitted five paragraphs on how she could demonstrably feel and see climate change affecting her life. That included a passage about how she has felt wildfire smoke irritate her lungs and cause her nasal congestion, throat and eye irritation, and headaches. Because of the wildfire smoke, the case argues, the young Vancouverite has been unable to participate in a number of activities that are important for her health, well-being and lifestyle. At the rally in Vancouver, GramesWebb relished the opportunity to meet the other young Canadians who had come forward. The group ranges from a 15-year-old fishing enthusiast from Saskatoon worried about low river levels to a 10-year-old in Mississauga suffering from heat exhaustion.
DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION
Zoe Grames-Webb (holding mic) joined 14 other young activists to protest government inaction against climate change
Hopefully, if we win, the government will come up with a climate recovery plan based on science. We’re not asking for money or anything, just that they drastically reduce CO2 emissions and that they have a plan.”
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