“We are facing the fight of our lives and if nothing is done, its our generation, and the generations after us, that are going to deal with those consequences,” says Amber Church, National Director of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and Yukon native. We talked to her about youth, action, and why she was so devastated with Canada at the Copenhagen Earth Summit that she went into hiding and cried for two weeks.

“When I was 16, the effort really started to hit home in terms of looking at the effects of climate change where I was from,” says Yukon native Amber Church. “Being really rooted in being from the north, and being from the arctic, and really starting to understand what was happening to my own home spurred me to start to learn more and to start to get involved. That led to me realizing what’s happening everywhere, and how much we need champions to really push this issue.”

For Church, climate change is more than a movement, it’s fighting for the land she lives on. Church sees the effects of climate change every day. Working as the National Director of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, Church helps connect youth and organize actions, communicate with elected officials, and inspire realistic and empowering change.

“Personally I view Climate Change as the largest issue facing our world as a whole today,” Amber says. “It’s one of the few issues that effects everyone is some way, because it does tie in to everything.” To see how this effect is happening in Canada, all Church has to do is go into her back yard. “We’re seeing the permafrost melt, which in White Horse is an issue because the Permafrost is underneath all of our buildings. Throughout the Yukon, we’re seeing buildings actually collapse.” While buildings are shaking on their foundations, the Spruce Beetle is devastating the territory. “Kluane National Park is this huge, amazing natural historic site, and 3/4s of the trees within the park are now dead. We already have huge numbers of forest fires, but those are amplifying.” Church did her masters in Glaciology, and watched glaciers that feed major river systems retreat rapidly, losing body at a disturbing rate.

From Amber’s perspective, Canadians-especially young people, have a very strong role to play. Last October, Powershift Canada brought thousands of Canadian youth from coast to coast to Ottawa, to bring a message to Parliament Hill. It was the largest gathering of its kind in the history of the country. CYCC is working to send a similar message with a gathering centered around the G8/G20 in June.

“Young people have a voice in this debate that no one else can bring the same moral authority or the same impact to. We are facing the fight of our lives and if nothing is done, its our generation, and the generations after us, that are going to deal with those consequences. I know personally I’ve been told since a very young age that it’s my job, and the job of my generation, to change the world and to save the world. And that’s a huge mantle to take up, but we don’t have a choice. This is our generation’s Vietnam, except on a global scale. When we come to a debate, what we bring to the whole issue is that voice. It comes from a very true place, a very honest place, and a very moral place. We bring back into those discussions and debates, away from the policy, back to the reality of the actual situations, and that’s something that I think is vital to actually move things forward.”

SDTC: What role does Canada play in Climate Change?
Amber Church: Although we have a small population, we still have a huge footprint. And as a developed nation, we have the money and resources, so that if we chose to act, we could. And I think that potential for leadership is probably our hugest role, because if we choose to act, it’s very much an act of good faith for the developing nations around the world, to help them also feel like they can act.

Where would you like to see that change happen?
I think the change needs to come at all levels, and I think in terms of that leadership piece, we need to see the action happen from our federal government. Some of our provinces and territories are already leading the way, and doing some fantastic work, and I’d like to see the federal government catch up to them. That would be fantastic. We also need to hear the voices of Canadians in the debate. To be honest, the only way to really push our federal government to take action is if they’re hearing it constantly from the public. We’ve seen that recently in a couple successes we’ve had, when the public pressure is high, things actually do happen in Ottawa. So we need ordinary Canadians to stand up and use their voices.

Tell us a bit about CYCC
The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition is a national organization of youth, from all across the country, as well as organizations working on climate change, anyone from groups like the Canadian Auto Workers to the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Sierra Youth Coalitions. A huge, huge range of groups, and also individuals, so young Canadians who really want to get involved can make a difference, and our role is to put together strategies for them. All those young people across Canada who are so passionate and want to see something done have the opportunity to really dig in and do something.

What is one effect of Climate Change you think our readers would be surprised to learn?
One that I sometimes like to talk about, especially with young people who are interested in global development issues, is looking at the conflict in Darfur, and the fact that the genocide and the issues going on in the region are driven by racism and issues around ethnic conflict, but at the same time they are exacerbated and very much fueled by the lack of water, and the lack of water is due to climate change. The amount of water that is no longer present in that region is a direct result of climate change and has directly fueled that conflict.

What are a few things over the past year that have inspired, and disappointed, you?
We’ve got a few. Let’s do inspiration first. Things that have inspired me. One is Powershift Canada. That was an event we organized that was over a thousand young people from every single province and territory across the country. They came together in Ottawa for four days, to mobilize, to act and to learn, as well as to take their message to Ottawa. Coming together for this huge event, the energy and the enthusiasm from that event really catalyzed the movement for the rest of the year. Also, hundreds of youth all across the country are doing something called the Climate Crew Mondays. Every Monday, they would do a fun action in a public space to draw some attention, and then they would phone their elected officials, and tell them what leadership they wanted in terms of the UN climate change meetings, the green job movement, in terms of indigenous rights. They brought these issues forward, week in and week out, again and again and again, which was amazing and inspiring to see happen. That led into Copenhagen, and Copenhagen was many things. It was incredibly devastating to personally be there, and to see everything fall so short of the goals we had for a fair, aggressive and legally binding agreement, and in that sense it was a disaster, and incredibly, incredibly disappointing. But the inspiration that came out of that was there too. The passion and energy of the international youth movement was overwhelming there.

So Copenhagen was devastating, and I went into hiding for two weeks afterwards, and I cried, and I hid, and I was angry at the world, and if anybody asked how was Copenhagen my husband tackled them, I couldn’t deal with it for a week. But despite all of that, seeing the commitment around the world and the commitment to continue after such a devastating blow, and the realization that losing a battle doesn’t mean you’ve lost the war, it was incredible and it became an incredibly inspiring event despite the outcome. And that definitely moved forward into this year, where we’ve finally seen bill C311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, just got the support of all the opposition parties. SO we’re starting to actually see movement, not from the party leading the Canadian government, but from the rest of the opposition parties who are starting to work together and really push and really starting to listen to young Canadians. We see youth all across the country right now mobilizing for the G20 and the G8 which are gonna be happening in June, here in Canada, and really pushing forward on the ideas of climate justice, and wanting to see climate change on that agenda, because the countries at the G20 are those key players who decide what happens at the international arena. And just the recovery, which is still going on, from Copenhagen, and people picking themselves up and moving forward and continuing to push, is incredibly inspiring and I think will continue to inspire me throughout this year and into the future.

What advice would you give to young woman looking to get involved in the fight for Climate Justice?
Stand up and start working, it’s actually very easy to get involved. The CYCC is one place you can go to volunteer, or get involved in our campaigns, but we’re one of many. Look at what’s going on in your communities-it doesn’t matter which level you choose to work at, if you choose to work locally, provincially, nationally, internationally, there are opportunities galore, and just start small, see what it feels like, and you might find yourself building more and more very rapidly. If you ever need help, feel free to approach organizations like mine and we’ll be happy to help you get there, to where you want to go.

What are some things women should be reading to keep themselves informed?
A blog called the Desmog Blog , they’re based in Vancouver, and they do an amazing, amazing job keeping track of all of the media coming out on climate change, and also combating a lot of information the deniers are putting out, so they’re an incredibly good source. If you want the real facts, they’ll give it to you and they’ll give it to you in a way that you can actually understand. If you want to get involved in the movement, the Climate Action Network is an amazing place to go, they co-ordinate most of the Canadian NGOs, my organization included, on major campaigns, and also have a huge number of resources for everything from the Facebook organizations to the NGO community through to the unions, so lots and lots of resources there. Internationally, the Global Campaign for Climate Action , and 350.org are two websites that I cannot say enough about. They’re a fantastic resource. 10:10 is worth looking at, too. They’re getting people to reduce their own carbon emissions by 10% over 2010. And finally, if you’re younger and you want to get involved in the movement, definitely check out the CYCC website. Our website is loaded with resources of ways to get involved, and on the blog on the first page, we put up information about anything that comes our way, and could be useful for the Canadian youth climate movement to get involved in.