Climate Ribbons in Paris and...Bowmanville?

We lived in the Southern Ontario town of Bowmanville for a decade near the end of my ministry. St. Paul's was an active congregation with four generations or worshippers represented on many Sundays. Bowmanville is at the edge of the GTA and is drive-by commuter community on highway 401 for a lot of people. It actually has an impressive community life with good schools, including St. Stephen Catholic Secondary. Ruth made presentations there on several occasions as the Outreach Worker for Bethesda House, the local shelter for women and children leaving abusive relationships.

I was impressed to hear that the school has taken part in the Climate Ribbon project, an international effort to raise awareness of “climate chaos.” It describes itself as "The Climate Ribbon is an arts ritual to grieve what each of us stands to lose to Climate Chaos, and affirm our solidarity as we unite to fight against it"



It was a religion teacher at the school, Beth McKinlay who got the local involvement underway in response to the 2018 report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned there are 12 years left to limit the impact of climate change, before the risks of floods, drought and extreme heat worsen.

 

McKinlay's Grade 11 Indigenous issues class enthusiastically got involved in the project to raise awareness. The students created their own ribbon tree for the school. They also made presentations to 20 classes in the school, sharing facts with their peers and encouraging them to write ribbons. The class  sold bracelets and treats, raising enough money to plant 56 trees through Trees Canada.

 

This is yet another example of the passion young people have for addressing what that seem to get, that this is a crisis which will profoundly affect their lives. This is a practical and spiritual issue and it's impressive to see it addressed as both.

 

 

Climate Ribbon Tree Paris COP21