Feel free to use the sample letter below to help you participate in the public consultation for New Brunswick’s next five-year climate plan. We strongly encourage you to add to this letter with your own thoughts and concerns about climate change and how it is affecting you and your family.
Dear Premier Higgs, members of the Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship, and all New Brunswick MLAs,
I am worried about climate change. I am worried about how a changing climate affects my health and the safety of my family and our communities. We see the changes in our own lifetimes. From more intense rain, wind, and ice storms causing floods and power outages, to hotter days and seasons bringing dry summers and ticks, to sea level rise and storm surges tearing up our coasts, extreme weather is putting our communities and families at risk and disturbing life support systems. We all know this is not how it is supposed to be.
I am feeling more anxious day-by-day because governments are doing so little to protect us from the effects of extreme weather, or to cut the pollution causing the problem. We need leadership that helps us transition to a clean energy system fit for a climate-friendly world and that invests in the infrastructure and planning changes we need to keep communities and families safe.
It is frightening when the scientific community is so clear and united about the realities of climate change, yet so many leaders refuse to act with the urgency a changing climate demands.
I was inspired to see hundreds of children and New Brunswickers of all ages gather in front of the Legislature and in towns and villages across our province for the global climate action rallies last winter, spring and fall.
So please, Premier Higgs and all elected officials, take climate change seriously. Take climate solutions seriously. We need to do more.
Yours,