Last Tuesday December the 10th, Elizabeth May, the leader of Canada's national green party, made a brief appearance in Halifax while on a stopover en route to Copenhagen.
Having been living away from her home of Nova Scotia campaigning in BC, Ms. May jokingly dubbed these few hours in Halifax her âNova Scotia Christmasâ.
Ms. May was greeted by a gaggle of green party supporters, and gave all in attendance the gift of her experience, knowledge and sense of humour gleaned from many years as an environmental campaigner. Ms May's speech succeeded in rallying spirits and giving insight into international negotiations that are often difficult to understand from an average citizen's perspective.
To cover this story for CKDU, I hopped on the dreaded 80 bus from downtown Halifax, met up with a friend in Bedford, and before I knew it, I was setting up to record in a hotel just outside the airport. Not long after, Ms. May entered the room and began her talk.
After Ms. May, a brief talk was given by Richard Zurowski, who spoke about climate catastrophes in the earth's distant past. Zurowski, a local meteorologist and author of The Maritime book of Climate Change and the Book of Maritime Weather, used these examples to place into context the dangers of runaway global climate change, and the role of popular science education and science professionals in the process of climate negotiations.