E X H I B I T
An exhibit of artifacts from wildfires, floods and hurricanes in Canada: Testimonies of loss and resilience calling for an emissions cap.
The Canadian Government has announced that it is going to implement a policy to place a limit on climate-damaging oil and gas pollution. This corporate emissions cap needs to be implemented rapidly, now, and strengthened.
Intense lobbying from oil and gas corporations has significantly delayed the policy which would hold wealthy oil and gas corporations to their promises to cut emissions. You can read more facts with sources about the emissions cap, its benefits to Canadian lives and our economy, and why it would be easy for oil and gas corporations to abide by it on our fact sheet here.
It's been three years since an emissions cap was first promised. Three years of many more thousands of homes and businesses that have gone up in flames or flooded underwater. Thirteen oil and gas corporations operating or based in Canada are on the list of 88 big carbon polluters called out for a major share of the forested lands lost to wildfires in North America between 1986 and 2021. 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 around 30% of total national greenhouse gas emissions. Between 1990 and 2022, emissions from oil sands production grew by 467% and conventional oil production by 24%. Per-barrel emissions from oil sands have also increased since 2018. 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.
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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Coming to Ottawa on Oct. 30th!
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Date: Wednesday, October 30th, 2024.
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Time: Exhibit to run 11:30am-6pm.
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Location: Queen St. Fare, 170 Queen St. in the main food hall on the stage.
You can get updates on upcoming exhibits via Sierra Club Canada.
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.