E X H I B I T
An exhibit of artifacts from wildfires, floods and hurricanes in Canada: Testimonies of loss and resilience
What would you save if your home was about to be destroyed by a flood, wildfire or hurricane?
Each of the artifacts below was damaged or rescued from a climate event in Canada.
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On September 24, experience the relics in person in New York City.
Tuesday September 24, 2024
10 am — 7 pm
148 East 40th Street
Manhattan, NY
Wine and snacks served 4 — 7 pm
Summer 2024 was the hottest summer ever recorded. From deadly floods across Italy, Pakistan, Nigeria, China and Canada — to monsoons triggering landslides that killed hundreds in India. In Mecca, 1300 pilgrims died due to extreme heat.
Unnatural disasters — powered by fossil fuel emissions — are taking away things we love. Most tragic are the lost lives. Then there are the destroyed homes, damaged businesses, displaced families, and the loss of a sense of safety.
Protect What We Love spotlights recent climate disasters in Canada — and the emotional and financial losses of climate survivors. The exhibit offers a poignant reminder why Canada must urgently cap rising oil and gas emissions that are contributing to more extreme and more intense heatwaves, floods, fires and droughts in Canada and around the world.
Scientists have linked the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires and floods to runaway fossil fuel emissions.
As fossil fuel emissions rise and our planets heats up, wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense - and impacted people across borders. The smoke from wildfires over the last few years have blanketed large parts of the United States, triggering US air quality alerts.
A 2023 study found a connection between Canadian wildfire smoke and an increase in the number of people being treated for asthma-related symptoms in New York City. Smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed skies across Canada (in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, etc), the U.S. (New York, Washington, DC) and stretched as far as Norway and elsewhere in Europe. Canadian cities experienced some of the worst air quality in the world.
It’s been nearly three years since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he was going to implement a policy to place a limit on climate-damaging oil and gas pollution.
Intense lobbying from the oil and gas sector has significantly delayed the policy.
Three years of many more thousands of homes and businesses that have gone up in flames or flooded underwater. Any further delay in holding the biggest polluters accountable to reducing their emissions would mean worsening climate disasters and more homes, businesses and lives turned upside down.
Protect what we love.
We urge the Canadian federal government to strengthen the emissions cap and protect the hope of millions of people who want to live in a fair and safe country — now, and for generations to come.
The impacts of worsening wildfires and floods cross borders. A strong emissions cap would not only benefit Canadians, but people across the globe bearing the brunt of extreme climate disasters as fossil fuel emissions rise.
A strong emissions cap could finally hold the biggest polluters accountable to their fair share of emissions reductions.
In Canada, the oil and gas sector is responsible for 31% of total national greenhouse gas emissions. Between 1990 and 2022, emissions from oil sands production grew by 467% and conventional oil production by 24%. Meanwhile, other sectors cut their emissions.
Canada has never met a climate target, and is not on track to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target of 40-45% below 2005 levels.
A strong emissions cap could safeguard the future for our kids and grandkids. Canada needs to do its part to rein in fossil fuel emissions - to prevent more climate disasters.
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