Please read the attached bellow and consider what we at R2:1 could/should be doing.
What actions are required at this point? Open to all feedback.

Note to R2:1 Members from Cheryl Bradbee, 26 Sept, 2021

Meetings I have been to that may require action

1. CrewResilience: I spoke with Sheila Murray in August. They focus on increasing equity and community/network links to increasing resilience. They began in Toronto but are now national. One of the things they do is run events where community members discuss and plan for disaster responses. They have funding. Sheila passed me onto CAN where they are also a member. They can be found at: https://crewresilience.ca/
2. Climate Action Network with Managing Director Teika Newton on August 23. CAN is the Canadian part of a global network. They operate at both local and international level and are a participant in UN and COP meetings. They are made up of about 140 members here in Canada, organizations with a variety of purposes. We had a wide-ranging conversation from Passive Houses to blue berries and bears. Along the way I learned that there are two gaps in the CAN that Resilience 2:1 could address. The first is the issue of resilience itself. Their focus has been on sustainability rather than resilience and adaptation. They are just now gaining members working on resilience. CrewResilience is one of that handful. There is also a lack of content. When Canada signed the Paris Declaration on Climate it agreed to something called ACE – Action for Climate Empowerment. Canada has done little or nothing around this goal. And we all have noticed a lack of available content for use by students, communities, networks, professional associations etc. So, our focus is important and our capacity to create content is important. 2 gaps to fill if we want to. Resilience 2:1 can join CAN for $40/year, waived if we have no income. It connects us into a Canadian network of folks all working on these issues. CAN can be found here: https://climateactionnetwork.ca/
3. Deb Morrison: Is an activist living on Pender Island in BC but she teaches at University of Washington. She is focused on ACE and especially on empowering communities to deal with the effects of climate change. She is ready to make things happen and has a strong sense of urgency. At the moment, she and CAN are focused on the next COP meeting but will be back at other issues as soon as that is done. Deb can be found here: https://www.debmorrison.me/home
Next COP meeting COP26 is meeting from October 31 – Nov 12 in Glasgow. It is an important one and really determines how well we will all be living going forward. The website is here: https://ukcop26.org/
4. ACE meeting. Deb Morrison and I met with Pratishtha Singh who leads on ACE actions for the Climate Action Network. Again, there is a strong sense of urgency and also a realization that there are huge gaps in content. Content is difficult because it would need to meet the needs of both geographically based and demographically based groups. From tenant associations to professional associations. How to organize that? Where to keep the materials? Is there a central place that content could be kept for anyone to access? Lots of question to be answered yet.
Summary and Thoughts: That’s what I’ve been up to for the past month. There are certainly other networks we could connect with but my big take away from it all is that there is a huge need and a huge hunger for information, packaged in a way that every day folk can digest and act on it. R2:1 has all sorts of expertise within it. How can we make use of that and what kind of vehicle is needed to enable it?
5. Per Hadi’s project with social networking and mentoring – again a huge gap, a missing piece. These kinds of organizations often become closed loops of like-minded, self-selected individuals. How to we reach the rest? What kinds of vehicles are needed for that?

Your thoughts?
Feedback?
Actions we can and should take?
Gaps we could fill?
Projects we could initiate?

Let me know in a reply.
Cheryl

Addition on September 30, 2021

Just an FYI. I had a conversation with my Ryerson planning students last night. They are all assigned small/medium Canadian cities and are researching their adaptation and resilience plans for climate change. The class assigns each student to the city as Chief Climate Officer (CCO) beginning in 2030. They will assess current plans and then do further planning to 2050.

I began the class with a poll on how they were feeling about their research so far. I asked, regarding what they had researched, how they felt about the plans by the various cities and their adequacy to the reality of the moment. I asked if they were ‘wildly confident’, 50/50 or in ‘utter despair’. No one was confident that any city they are researching has an adequate plan for the future. A small majority were in the middle. A significant chunk was in utter despair. Edmonton was described as promising a vague 10% cut in emissions someday. St John’s NL also focused on GHG reductions but did little about enhancing resilience. Delta appears to be waiting for a real disaster from sea level rise in hopes that will motivate people to address it. Or flee, I guess.

Okay. That’s where we are as a nation. Not good. It emphasizes again the need for content. The need for education. And the need for networks that can share info and encourage. There is much work to be done in this country.

Meanwhile I told my students they would all have jobs as their new CCO skills will be in demand.

Your thoughts?
Cheryl