The spring is birthday season. Most of my close friends have birthdays between March and June, meaning each week I am scrambling to get gifts together and attending birthday parties in crowded restaurants. This year I am particularly unprepared – where did time go? It’s a Thursday afternoon and I am running to buy a few last things. I am already late and forgot to get birthday candles – thankfully Toronto corner stores are notoriously well-stocked. I go to enter the store and I see a sign, “Must be wearing a mask”. I sigh and roll my eyes with frustration, there is no way we are going to be affected by COVID-19 here! It’s so far away…surely things will be under control soon? I grumble and cross the street into another store. Making my way through the narrow aisles, a quiet TV plays in the corner. I am half-listening – scanning the shelves for what I need. My...

“I said the other day that able-bodied people lack the imagination to think inclusively. So we have to challenge ourselves to be more creative with our sustainability solutions” (Wright, 2020) As I move throughout my education in climate action leadership, I am continuously reminded of the responsibility those within climate adaptation spaces have to approach solutions with an equity framework. In my own community there is impressive climate adaptation planning underway, which is reflected in Toronto’s First Resilience Strategy. The report calls for “preparing our most vulnerable residents” for the effects of climate change, adapting in ways that put the “most vulnerable members of our society first, because they are usually affected the most by both shocks and stresses”, confronting “our uncomfortable histories” and “promoting prosperity through new relationships with...

My first audience was the Aylmer Town Council and their Environmental Committee. For this second iteration, I wanted to address the citizens of Aylmer. In developing content for this new audience, I began by researching demographic information about Aylmer. A large portion of the population (61.51%) are ages 15-64, (aylmer.ca). Within this group, a majority of citizens work in the manufacturing industry, and the most common occupations are in trades and transport (aylmer). A majority of people working in Aylmer hold no educational certificate (2045 individuals), or a High School diploma (1790).  My target audience for this new iteration is within this group of citizens, and could range from dismissive to alarmed in regards to climate change. My original audience were presumably alarmed, as the Town Council and Environmental Committee already have public-facing information about...

One sunny afternoon in my sit spot, located in a busy west-end Toronto neighbourhood, I started to notice the people passing by.  Many of them are millennials, each one glued to their phone either looking at their device, reacting to a notification or speaking into their nearly invisible earphones. They are young professionals, on a work call taking their dog for a mid-day walk, and parents out with their newborns for a stroll. Glancing down to see if I had any new notifications, I saw that my Co-Star app was prompting me to check in with myself today, offering bizarre (yet somehow very accurate?) guidance. Co-Star is an app which offers daily readings to users based on their astrological chart. It offers advice, readings about how you are feeling that day and makes suggestions for how to handle challenges in your life. The app also suggests who in your life might be able to help...

Views from my sit spot in the west-end of Toronto. I chose my “sit spot” at the beginning of September, when shifts in the air were beginning to make me think of permanence and change. I rent an apartment in an old house which sits at the corner of two bustling streets, in the west-end of Toronto. From my front door I can look on to a neighbourhood park which, especially during the pandemic, has become a staple for locals. At this busy intersection I am able to witness my neighbourhood’s ecology – noticing the patterns of the living beings, both human and non-human, who live in this small corner of the city. I sit by my front door under two huge honey-locust trees, on a bed of mulch with an incredibly diverse variety of plants pushing through. Sitting in this space, I am able to notice the contrast between the fleeing presence of humans and the sustained existence of non-human...

I have chosen to complete my climate communications analysis on an article by Mihskakwan James Harper, a scholar from Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 8, which was published by the Yellowhead Institute. The brief, entitled “Can We Achieve Climate Action And Reconciliation In A Post COVID World?” was published in June of 2020, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. All research and publications on the Yellowhead website are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Canada License. The Yellowhead Institute is a First-Nation led research centre, focused on policies related to land and governance (Yellowhead Institute). The Institute has five core objectives including: Shaping new governance models and supporting governance work in First Nations communities and urban communitiesInfluencing policy development and holding governments accountable for policies...