A Campaign for our Generation

Climate change is not just an environmental issue. When our crops fail from unexpected droughts, this is a livelihood issue. When our grandparents die from heat waves, climate is a health issue. When the animals we traditionally hunt are no longer there, this is a survival issue. When children can no longer play hockey on outdoor rinks, this is a cultural issue. When job opportunities disappear because industry refused to adapt to a changing world, this is an economic issue. It is our future at stake.

It is astounding that while climate change is disrupting the way we live our lives and will only continue to become worse, the government is doing next to nothing to educate students in public school about the causes, impacts, and solutions to climate change. As a result of this gap in Canada’s public school curriculum, we’re taking matters into our own hands. We have created a workshop called The Wings of Change to help tie climate change and climate justice into classroom discussions across the country.

The workshop, created for high school students, expands on the scientific understanding of climate change to connect participants with the human impacts of climate change locally, nationally and globally. By strengthening the conceptual connections between societal norms, civic engagement and the effects of climate change  on lives around the world, together we are fostering the systems thinking that is crucial to solving the climate crisis and empowering a generation of young Canadians. The workshop is unique in that it moves beyond simply informing young people about the issues by encouraging participants to find their political voices and providing them with the opportunity to be part of a larger movement.

Wings of Change combines enthusiastic facilitation (by youth, to youth) and a multimedia presentation (video, audio & images) with interactive activities, discussion and art. Through this diverse approach, participants explore climate change, from science to human impacts and discuss the individual and collective actions that we can take to affect change in our society. Emphasis is placed on positive, creative solutions and the workshop finishes with an opportunity for each student to create their own ‘feather’ to contribute to an ongoing, nation wide art project, gathering messages from youth to create the “wings of change”; breathtaking bird sculpture that will carry the voices of youth up to Parliament Hill and into the halls of power.

Workshop Outline


• Climate Science (video)

◦ Greenhouse effect

◦ Positive feedback mechanisms

◦ IPCC predictions

◦ GHG sources


• The human side of climate change (discussion & images)

◦ Local, national & international climate impacts

◦ Discussion: How will these changes affect our lives? How will they affect others?

• Climate Justice (interactive demonstration)

◦ We examine the distribution of global wealth, global GHG emissions, climate change impacts and the UN established principle of “common but differentiated responsibility”

• Social Change (discussion/images/art)

◦ We discuss the root causes of climate change, exploring the framework under which our society functions & the social norms that shape our lives

◦ We review the large social changes that have shaped history (womens’ liberation, civil rights movement, labour movement etc) & how collective action can cause a paradigm shift even against the biggest challenges

◦ Participants are encouraged to recognize their own capacities & their avenues to create change (civic engagement, art, peer-toeducation, creation of in-school recycling or alternative energy campaigns etc.)

◦ Each participant is given the materials to create their own feather for the national Wings of Change collective art project

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