With 20 days to go to the G8 and G20 summits in Toronto, here are 20 reasons that the youth climate movement needs to get mobilized. Every day you can become increasingly motivated to get organize, get mobilized, and know just why we need to have our voices heard.

1. The G8 and G20 are a self-selected, unaccountable group of nations that has deemed themselves legitimate for making decisions that impact all people. The Group of 192 (aka the United Nations) is unquestionably a more appropriate forum to discuss global issues.
2. Both G8 and G20 summits refuse to talk about the Alberta tar sands, the single largest environmental and social injustice on Turtle Island.
3. Only 2 of the G20 countries (Mexico and Argentina) are on track to meeting their Kyoto agreements.
4. Rich countries will not be talking about paying their climate debt at the summits.
5. Neither the G8 nor the G20 will be discussing climate financing.
6. G20 countries have given over 200 billion dollars in subsidies to the oil and coal industry, but have allocated no money directly to an environmental strategy.
7. Security costs for the summits are estimated to be over $1 billion dollars. This is $1 billion dollars more than Canada has committed to climate financing.
8. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon urged Stephen Harper to talk seriously about climate change at the G20 meetings, but he refused. “I’m going to discuss with Prime Minister Harper, as the leader of the G8, and as a chair of the G20 this year, and as one of the most developed countries in the world. Canada has a special role and special responsibility to play. That is what I want to emphasize.” Harper would not accept his responsibility.
9. Canada, where the G8 and G20 will meet, houses over 60% of the world’s mining companies. Mining displaces people and strips away forests, causing warming of the earth’s surface, water evaporation, and desertification.
10. Neither Canada nor the United States–powerful and influential players in the G20–have signed onto the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is imperative in achieving climate and environmental justice.
11. Some G20 countries are exploiting other G20 countries. For example, due to climate change, agricultural land in Mexico is being destroyed. Canada recruits these out-of-work farmers and employs them as temporary workers in dangerous jobs in Canada. They work in the tar sands and in our agricultural sector with poor wages and little access, if any, to social services. Climate change is, and will continue, displacing entire communities due to land degradation, poor air quality, drought, or rising sea levels.
12. This convergence is an opportunity for young people to speak with organizers and dedicated individuals from other movements. That way we can really see how the road to climate and environmental justice involves the rights and dignity of all people.
13. Rich countries at these summits are promoting carbon markets, which historically have not worked. The G20 promotes these policies as a way to reinforce the free market system, a system which has caused social and environmental hardships. The G20  excludes civil society  from discussions and decision making processes. We cannot allow decisions to be made about us, without us.
14. The main goal of the summits is to bolster the global financial system and put the economy “on track for sustainable growth.” Yet its priorities continue to be the priorities of the wealthiest people in the wealthiest countries, not the needs of those being hit first and worst.
15. The Summits’ security budget could pay for an estimated 250+ 2MW wind turbines, enough to power 500,000 homes.
16. G20 countries are responsible for 70-80% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
17. The G8 encourages countries to drill oil in new places, and gives them money to help them do this.  In Canada, the government wants to drill for oil in the Artic, even though it will destroy untouched wilderness and is against the interests of the Inuit people living there.
18. The G8 encourages countries to drill oil in new places, and gives them money to help them do this.  In Canada, the government wants to drill for oil in the Artic, even though it will destroy untouched wilderness and is against the interests of the Inuit people living there.
19. G8 / G20 countries refuse to meet with the rest of the world and agree on a plan to battle climate change.  Instead, they make their own rules at their own meetings that do not force them to make any real changes to their environmental rules.
20. And because the real solutions are out there and they are rooted in a sense of harmony and solidarity with each other and the planet, and in the rights of living with clean air, water, and land.

On Saturday June 26th, 10:10 Canada held its official kick off day in Calgary, Alberta. Members of 10:10 Canada headed downtown on the beautiful summers day, and with the help of some friends held a very succesful kickoff day.

A giant sign was set up (re-used paper!!!) where people could sign with one commitment they want to make over the next year. People of all ages and all backgrounds signed the poster, and we were even fortunate enough to have a handful of kids contribute through they ever adapting artistic abilities!!!

Along with the poster, we talked to over 300 people about the campaign and provided information on how to sign up! Check out the 10:10 Canada facebook page to see all the photos from the day!

Written by Lavanya Julaniya, CYCC Intern

Climate change poses the biggest challenge of this century. For so many of us, it is already a fight for survival!

Coming from a third world country, India, is one of the worst hit due to climate change. Its devastating impacts are sparing none and are only becoming further visible with time. Struggling to get access to water on a day to day basis or withstanding the unbearable heat which is killing more and more people every single year. To the farmers committing suicides due to lack of water or the islands submerging in Sunder bans.

Climate change is so evident.

It makes me realize the kind of role I need to play in a country so severely impacted by climate change.

However, coming to Canada and working as a G20 campaigner and coordinator with the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition has opened my eyes to hope. Over the past 6 weeks, I have interacted with brilliant minds that are so driven to stop climate change. The level of energy and activism has inspired me and further motivated me to go on pleading for the cause. These young people are pushing hard to make a difference in their communities.

The Canadian government has spent approx $1.3 billion on security to host the 3 day G20. It hasn’t brought any advantage to the average Canadian. The people I interacted with are even disgusted to pay taxes which go into financing high level security events. Three years’ worth of vastly improved health facilities for women and children, $1000 tuition cuts for every student in Canada, 11,000 new construction jobs is what $1 billion could buy, they tell me.

During my time in Toronto, I have witnessed massive movements to resist the policies supported by the G20.  It dawned on me that even in an industrialized country like Canada, the citizens are indeed unhappy with the present state of development. They are arguing for Harper’s government to put climate change as an agenda on G20, something the Canadian government is ignoring for so long.

So, what point is the present development if are just moving backwards?

This June 23^rd 2010 was deemed as the environmental and climate justice day of action in Toronto. I witnessed probably the greatest march for climate justice in history.

Climate justice organizers and campaigners took a toxic tour of Toronto to expose institutions responsible for the environmental and social impacts of Canada’s extractive industries at home and abroad. The country is also home to 75% of the mining and exploration companies and is home to the destructive Tar sands project in Alberta. The tar sands project in Alberta is the largest industrial project in human history but also the most destructive and unsustainable form of development. It is already spelling disasters for communities.

It was a peaceful demonstration and witnessed hundreds of gathering. I had the privilege to speak with climate activists who so desperately want to bring an end to the mining abuses. Or grandmothers who are worried about the future of their grandchildren. There were people who had flown in from across the country to voice their opinions and take part in the protest.  I chatted with students who are so fired up, wanting to bring about a revolution and shouted slogans in an attempt to attain environmental and climate justice.

We also danced to the beats of the Samba band during the march and rapped to, “G8 G20, they few, we many”.

There were several colorful floats and banners displaying the BP oil spill and whether humanity comes first or profits.

People had come dressed up as corporate zombies, clowns. I myself came dressed as an oil sledge to protest against the oil sands and its impact on the planet.

The toxic tour also stopped at various key locations: a branch of RBC, the court house and the Canadian Mining hall of fame. There were climate witnesses too, from Guatemala, Kenya, Alberta and British Columbia who talked about the devastating impact of climate change and the mining abuses. It is eventually, the marginalized communities who have to deal with climate change the most, even though their contribution to it has been the least.

It’s remarkable though, how the climate movement has brought together the youth from across the world. It made me further appreciate the fact that our voices do matter. And what eventually matters is how we use them.

There was an amazing wave of energy flowing thorough the march. I felt so proud that I was out there on the streets being a part of the movement than sitting on my comfortable couch at home.

I walked away with experiences of a lifetime.

ANOTHER WORLD IS INDEED POSSIBLE