Climate Action for Lifelong Learners

Getting there greener: EVs & bikes and what you need to know
2023-03-01 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Toronto) | On Zoom, Canada
THIS EVENT IS HAS ALREADY OCCURRED. A video and other learning resources are available here.
Electric vehicles (EVs) and electric bikes are important ways to reduce personal emissions and help limit climate change. We learned how to ‘get around greener’ and help others to do so too!
Our guest speakers were:
Steve Lapp (EV expert and educator)
Alison Stewart (Acting Co-Executive Director of Advocacy & Public Policy at Cycle Toronto)
Jacky Kennedy (Volunteer and co-founder of Cycle55+)

CALL 3rd Annual Town Hall - February 2023
2023-02-01 10:00 - 11:30 | On Zoom, Canada
Our 3rd Annual CALL Town Hall meeting was held on Wednesday, February 1st, 2023. CALL supporters were able to share and discuss what was on their “Climate Action Bucket List” and get caught up on the “behind the scenes” plans for future learning and meetings at CALL. People were also invited to get more involved as CALL volunteers. Learn more.

Biodiversity for Life and Climate
2023-01-18 10:00 - 11:30 | On Zoom, Canada
Image: Butterfly Photo: Atanu Bose Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
THIS EVENT IS HAS ALREADY OCCURRED.
Our meeting topic was “Biodiversity for Life and Climate” and included a recap of COP15, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity held in Montreal in December. Our guest speakers were Dr. Justina Ray (President and Senior Scientist at Wildlife Conservation Society Canada) and Mitchell Beer (publisher and managing editor of The Energy Mix / Climate News Network).
FOR RESOURCES PAGE [CREATE NEW]
Dear Karen,
Last Wednesday, at our CALL monthly learning meeting titled, Biodiversity for Life and Climate, we learned that Biodiversity encompasses the variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. While Earth’s biodiversity is so rich that many species have yet to be discovered, many species are being threatened with extinction due to human activities, putting the Earth’s magnificent biodiversity at risk and therefore human life as well.
We were pleased to introduce Dr. Justina Ray, President and Senior Scientist of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada; and Mitchell Beer, the founding publisher of Energy Mix, an e-digest on climate news.
Our speakers provided an overview of biodiversity in Canada, some understanding of biodiversity and climate change, the twin crises that humanity is facing as well as a brief summary of the climate conference COP 27 and the Nature COP 15 held in Dec in Montreal.
For those who attended we hope you enjoyed the presentation. For those who were not able to attend the presentation, here is a link to a video recording of the event:
And here is a link to a folder with copies of the speakers’ slides and a document with follow-up resources including answers to questions that we did not have time to get answered during the session which our speakers kindly answered afterwards.
Our Action of the Day, was about the momentum growing to protect the Greenbelt from irreversible harm to wildlife, ecological systems and prime agricultural areas from the Ford government’s decision to open up areas for development. To learn more and to take action, visit the Greenbelt Promise website.
Please join us next month (it’s SOON – Wednesday, February 1st at 10:00 a.m.) for our Annual CALL Townhall Meeting. It’s a chance to review the past year and look forward with upcoming plans. Plus a great opportunity for you to hear about some interesting volunteer opportunities with CALL. Register by clicking here:
You can also encourage your friends and family members to join CALL as a “Supporter” and attend any of our monthly learning meetings or interest groups. All our activities are no charge. You can pass along this sign-up link here.
Hope you’ll join us again,
JoAnne Hunter On behalf of the CALL Leadership team
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The Big Switch: Powering Canada's Net Zero Future
2022-11-02 10:00 - 11:30 | On Zoom, Canada
THIS EVENT IS HAS ALREADY OCCURRED.
Jason Dion, Mitigation Research Director at the Canadian Climate Institute, spoke to the report he co-authored, The Big Switch: Powering Canada’s Net Zero Future.

Jason Dion, Mitigation Research Director at the Canadian Climate Institute

Elin Kelsey on her ground-breaking book "Hope Matters"
2022-10-11 10:00 - 11:30 | On Zoom, Canada
THIS EVENT IS HAS ALREADY OCCURRED.
Scientist and award-winning author, Elin Kelsey, discussed her latest adult book: “Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis”. Elin is a recognized thought-leader in the evidence-based, hope and climate solutions movement and is committed to building a solutions-oriented paradigm for educating environmental scientists and social scientists. She is an Adjunct Faculty member of the University of Victoria School of Environmental Studies, and, Western Washington University’s partnership in the Redfish School of Change.

Clouds: changing the narrative on climate change, with Dr. Romila Verma
2022-09-07 10:00 - 11:30
Image: Chris Holifield Storm approaching Kiln Lane Buxhall; License: Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
THIS EVENT HAS ALREADY OCCURRED.
Guest speaker Dr. Romila Verma looked at climate through the lens of nature’s water cycle in her talk, “Clouds: changing the narrative on climate change.” She showed that climate is about the movement and storage of water on a global scale, and explored creative solutions to climate change, the most perplexing and complex anthropogenic disaster of our generation.

Biographical Background, Dr. Romila Verma:
Dr. Romila Verma is an Instructor on water and environmental issues at University of Toronto’s School of the Environment and Department of Geography. She is an innovative researcher, speaker, artist and documentary film-maker. Her experience growing up with resource inequity in India fuels her desire to educate, research, and find creative solutions to global challenges like freshwater shortage and climate change impacts. She is the founder of Water Speaks, an initiative that strives to translate the voice of water through research, education, and action. As the Founding Director of Trans Africa Pipeline (TAP), she is working on solutions to provide clean, safe water to the residents of the Sahel region of Africa.

CALL Advocacy Interest Group Meeting on Climate issues in the Ontario 2022 Spring Election
2022-04-06 10:00 - 11:30 | On Zoom, Canada
THIS EVENT HAS ALREADY OCCURRED.
On April 6th, 2022, CALL’s Climate Advocacy group analyze existing government climate policies and provide their high-priority recommendations based on the Ontario 2022 election.
Watch the video recording here:
