Dear Editor,

I am voting for the environment. If climate change wasn’t my priority before, it certainly would have . . .

become so after hearing Greta Thunberg speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

On behalf of her generation and those to come, she is asking the right question: How dare you? Youth have every right to shame us into looking into the future and asking ourselves: What did I do to make this better? Did I do everything I could?

The transition from a consumption-based world to a sustainable world is hard. Change is hard, for some more than others – disenfranchised communities around the world feel this first. Nonetheless, change is here whether we like it or not and we are being too slow to respond.

Whichever candidate has the most comprehensive, ambitious plan to address climate change gets my vote. I challenge all candidates to lead with plans to address the climate crisis. And I challenge all of us to have conversations about the impacts of climate change and the importance of the transition to a clean energy economy and then to take action.

As the next generation is telling us, we owe them a more just and safe future.

C. Rathwell

Masham, Que.