About Us

We are Canadian Seniors Compelled to Urgent Action

About Us

Young people are calling on governments to act decisively on the climate emergency. As seniors we will support their lead, amplify their voices and add our own to the growing movement for climate action.

We are building a seniors’ climate action group, currently based in Ontario, Canada. The group is democratic, accountable, equitable and participatory. A community in which we value each others knowledge, experience and views.

Our seniors’ climate action group will inform, and mobilize seniors in an effort to prevent more climate catastrophes. We recognize that climate action is also a demand for social justice and economic transformation – the opportunity, as well as the need, to address racism and economic inequities. We know Canada was founded on the occupation of Indigenous lands.

We are in this for the sake of future generations and the survival of life on the planet.

 

Indigenous Solidarity

Recognizing the Indigenous Peoples’ central role in addressing the climate emergency (traditional knowledge, strategic location in fossil fuel industry, imperative of a just reconciliation), this committee would engage with indigenous peoples, provide learning opportunities for members, organize solidarity actions, and make recommendations about the intersection of indigenous actions with SCAN! activities.

We hope you’ll join us too!

We have less than a decade to avoid locking in runaway climate change.

  • many parts of the world will soon be uninhabitable
  • ecosystems face destruction; species face extinction
  • hundreds of millions will be jobless and homeless

 

Canada bears an enormous responsibility for global warming:

Canadian corporations’ climate disregard and our Government’s failure to act cause major problems both at home and around the world. The climate crisis causes disproportionate hardship for poor, marginalized and racialized communities. Those who suffer most are those least responsible.We reject the idea that nature is to be conquered. We respect Traditional Indigenous Knowledge for all it has to teach us about caring for the land, air and water.

 

We need decisive action to:

  • rapidly drive down carbon emissions and eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels and petrochemicals
  • support those whose jobs have been destroyed by the climate crisis and those whose jobs are threatened by dramatically reducing carbon emissions
  • begin to restore the ecological damage caused by economic growth; and transition from an economy …

of accumulation to an economy of sustainability
of extraction to an economy of stewardship
of exploitation and inequality to an economy of fairness.

 

We will use our skills, experience and energy to respond to the climate emergency:

  • confront the power of fossil fuel companies, and pressure governments to act
  • oppose the destructive role of Canadian companies here and in other countries
  • challenge the orthodoxy of economic growth, wealth accumulation and the destruction of our natural world, and
  • promote a sustainable alternative to an economic system rooted in exploitation and racism

Committees

We refuse to despair. We have hope. But hope takes work – and hope requires action.

Here is a list of our current committees and working groups that are moving SCAN!’s work forward:

  • Climate Justice Committee
  • Media and Communications Committee
  • Indigenous Solidarity Committee
  • Culture and Innovative Tactics Committee
  • Membership, Organizing and Outreach Committee
  • Education Committee
  • Campaigns and Platforms
  • Ontario Project
  • Divestment Project Group
  • Coordinating Committee

 

To learn about becoming a member of SCAN! …