Wpg Free Press: Winnipeg scientists among 11,000 around world declaring ‘climate emergency’

As the Winnipeg Free Press reports:

A handful of Winnipeggers are among 11,000 scientists worldwide calling for radical changes to how we live, eschewing academic jargon to declare an urgent “climate emergency.”

The move comes after a federal election in which a majority of voters opted for parties with strong environmental platforms, and large-scale marches across the country buttressed by teen activist Greta Thunberg…

David Barber, an eminent climate researcher at the University of Manitoba, hopes the study can move Canadians beyond the status quo.

“This isn’t something we can just keep debating forever and ever; we have to get at solutions, because we’re in a trajectory that is going in the wrong direction,” he said.

While Barber wasn’t aware of the study before it came out, he said it avoids some of the political diluting of the message that happens with global bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and prescribes actions, unlike most scientific studies.

Barber said Canadians last debated how to cope with climate change a decade ago, and he believes there’s been cumulative support for serious action since, especially from young people.

“As a guy that’s been in this business for 35 years, I look at it and say, ‘Gee, I think we’re finally getting somewhere. the public is actually starting to pay attention to this now,” he said, citing the uptick in electric vehicles, solar technology and retrofitting buildings.

Barber is part of a Wednesday-night panel on the Fort Garry campus about how governments and individuals can respond to the climate-emergency declaration.

Read the full Free Press story here.