Climate Change, Youth and Jobs Institute: What will your future look like? - Video

This video records a meeting on February 4th and 5th, when thirteen high school students from across the Greater Toronto Area came together at York University for the Climate Change, Youth, and Jobs Institute hosted by the Work in a Warming World (W3). Four half-day workshops were created and facilitated by York University Professors Steven Tufts and Dawn Bazely, and Matthew Carroll.

The first workshop titled Climate Science 101 provided students with a foundation of the evidence of climate change and analyzed the main climate change denial arguments using media from a variety of sources and perspectives. Professor Dawn Bazely and Matt Carroll addressed common questions such as how do we know the climate is really changing and how does peer reviewed science proceed in a doubtful political climate? The second workshop titled Greening Workplaces began by introducing students to the concepts of the accumulation of wealth in the capitalist economic system. Professor Steven Tufts then led a discussion examining the term ‘green jobs’ and analyzed what it could look like to green all workplaces by facilitating a small-group exercise drawing on the work experience of the participants. The third workshop invited students to critically analyze a variety of perspectives on climate change including various levels of climate deniers and responders to the climate crisis. This workshop concluded with the students discussing and crafting a vision and declaration of specific concerns for Climate Change, Youth, and Jobs for the future (view the Young Green Workers Charter). The fourth and final workshop was a panel session including labour activist Winnie Ng, youth volunteer coordinator Hannah McKinnon, doctoral candidate James Nugent, and Greenpeace activist Steve Shallhorn on their views and experience working for progressive social and environmental change.