Thunder Bay youth make noise in the age of climate denial by promoting climate change and education

The Fridays for Future Thunder Bay group of youth held a virtual launch party for their THUNDER! Making noise in the age of climate denial zine on March 13.

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — The Fridays for Future Thunder Bay group of youth recently held a virtual launch party on March 13 for their THUNDER! Making noise in the age of climate denial zine.

“It was great,” says Keira Essex, a youth organizer with the group and a Grade 12 student at Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute who identifies as an urban Indigenous citizen. “It’s reaching lots of people of all different ages and demographics, which is very exciting.”

The virtual launch party video, which runs for about 24 minutes, is posted online. The video focuses on the origins of the group and project, the inspiration for and meaning behind the pieces and the importance of climate action.

“There’s been a lot of excitement about the zine and about the fact that people can see how the youth are feeling in this particular format,” Essex says. “We thought it was important to bring attention to youth perspectives on the climate, particularly local youth perspectives. A lot of the time youth aren’t taken seriously in various topics, but our particular focus was on the climate and sometimes when you take on initiatives to help the environment or even be involved in anything social justice-related, they will get praise for doing so but people won’t listen to their messages or make any systemic change.”

The zine, a booklet/mini-magazine, features a range of artwork and information by youth from 12 to 18-years-old, including drawings, digital illustrations, poems and photography, on the climate emergency in Thunder Bay and how people can support the environment. A link to the zine is posted on the Fridays for Future Thunder Bay Facebook page.

“Helping create the zine was important to me as I believe that we cannot have reconciliation without the preservation of the land,” Essex says. “Thunder Bay could be a leader for the nation in both reconciliation and environmental stewardship, and I hope that the zine drives people to take action for these causes.”

The Fridays for Future Thunder Bay group created the project with the hope of encouraging the local government to take systemic action in addressing the climate emergency and aiding the people of Thunder Bay in understanding the climate crisis from the perspective of local youth.

“I’ve heard from many adults who have read through it — they were very impacted by certain pieces of work,” says Lexi Crooks Hurdon, a youth organizer with the group and a Grade 12 student at Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute. “I have been involved with the group since September 2019. I just care about climate change and environmental issues as a whole so I wanted to contribute and do anything I could.”

Hurdon says Thunder Bay has not been impacted by some of the “huge natural disasters like the California wildfires” that are occurring elsewhere.

“But now we are experiencing a shift in our seasons, and our winter for sure which is most noticeable,” Hurdon says.

Hurdon says a group of Grade 11 students are now organizing and running the Fridays for Future Thunder Bay meetings as she and Essex will be pursuing post-secondary paths this upcoming fall.

“We are still helping out and contributing however we can,” Hurdon says, noting the group is planning activities for Earth Day. “We are going to do the whole month of April. People will be able to send pictures of them either repurposing something, doing the litter cleanup — we have a list of things you can do — and they will be put in a draw for prizes [from] local businesses.”