I’m writing this from an island that will soon be under water.
The Mi’kmaq of Lennox Island First Nation have lived in harmony with the waters of Malpeque Bay for more than 10,000 years—the same waters that are rising due to human-inflicted climate change, destroying their way of life and erasing their home. They are facing this oncoming disaster with resilience and fierce determination.
I know this because I’m here. Just like I was there in Paris in 2015 when international leaders signed the world’s most important climate action agreement. I saw an Indigenous Chief look at the ocean today, just like I saw Pacific Islanders fight for their lives two years ago. Climate change is happening. Island banks are eroding. Human lives are being lost. Today.
Today, when the news began reporting Trump’s expected withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, alongside the United Nations’ declaration that the climate-caused famine in central Africa is the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945. This is heavy news. As heavy as the floods of Ontario and the fires of Alberta. As heavy as the ocean waves rolling toward Lennox Island. I know it’s heavy because I feel it too. Sometimes all I can do is pray and sometimes my prayer is just the word fuck. Hopelessness is a weight that threatens to pull us below those ocean waves.
We can’t let it.
I say we can’t because I’ve marched with an artisan from Vanuatu, I’ve listened to a farmer from Ethiopia, I’ve shared a meal with an activist from the Philippines and I’m here with the people of Lennox Island, and I can tell you from the centre of my chest that these are lives worth fighting for. So draw on every fight we’ve ever won, every piece of history that will hold you up, draw on Stonewall and ACT UP and Keystone and Standing Rock; and organize. Find a local group and find it now. My generation depends on us and our children depend on us and every single person on the front lines of the climate crisis today depends on us.
“It seems almost too overwhelming,” said Chief Matilda of Lennox Island First Nation, “but we can’t give up.”
“We can’t give up.”
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