‘Seniors for Climate’ share message in Red Deer on International Day of Older Persons

“It’s important that our voices of heard. Seniors make up roughly 25 per cent of the voting population, so we have power to make change,” Strong says.

“It’s possible Canadians don’t think seniors care [about climate change] because they think we’ve got limited time left, because there are other things we’re worried about, and that we think it’s not that bad; but it is bad.”

Strong points to recent hurricane activity in the southeastern United States, wildfires that have ravaged communities like Jasper and Fort McMurray, and the 2013 floods in Calgary, all as evidence that climate change is having worsening effects.

“The world we know today is not what it was when today’s seniors were growing up. Times are tougher now, there are struggles, and climate change is one of them for seniors,” she says, noting that with every natural disaster, insurance increases.

“It affects our health, makes it difficult to sleep, and I’m not alone. It is on seniors’ minds and we need to have opportunities to talk about it.

Strong admits it can sometimes be a hard sell for some in Alberta, and despite a low turnout to the Red Deer event, it was successful in her mind, thanks in part to the quality speakers they had.

Other Alberta SFC events happened in Athabasca, Beaver County, Calgary, Camrose, Cochrane, Edmonton, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge.

One supporter of Red Deer’s gathering was Norm McDougall, board chair for The Council of Canadians’ local chapter.

Norm McDougall with The Council of Canadians speaks at a ‘Seniors for Climate’ gathering in Red Deer on Oct. 1, 2024. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

McDougall says the seniors he knows would prefer to leave the world a bit of a better place.

“Most of us have family who are quite a bit younger, we have children, grandchildren and so on,” he says. “We want to provide a liveable world for them.”

There are more seniors mindful of climate change than most would think, he opines.

It’s simply, he believes, a matter of organization.

McDougall recently attended a symposium on water at Red Deer Polytechnic and shared that he heard a lot of urgency around the need to make change much swifter than decades from now.

“Many people my age and older are concerned about their pension being mismanaged, and used to invest in fossil fuels by the government,” he adds.

“That will collapse and leave them without a viable pension, so they’re very uptight about it.”

He says obvious climate change-related things such as extreme heat and an increasingly smoky atmosphere are also concerns for older folks with health problems.

More information is at canadians.org and seniorsforclimate.org.

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by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

‘Seniors for Climate’ share message in Red Deer on International Day of Older Persons

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