A new campaign to cut back on the effects of climate change is being launched in Victoria.
It's called Meatless Monday, and it's being organized by a group of forward thinking kids who will inherit the planet. They are launching their campaign at the CRD Commons Room, with a meatless potluck dinner at 5:30pm.
16 year old Emma Jane Burian is a member of Our Earth, Our Future, the group encouraging people to give up eating meat once a week.
"If everyone in the CRD didn't eat meat just once a week, that's 78,007 tonnes of C02 emissions we'd be reducing each year."
She says a small change to your diet can end up making a big difference, especially if lots of people do it.
Burian adds that cows are a huge contributor to climate change because of the methane they produce, and reducing our reliance on them would help the climate.
"So the main thing in the Meatless Monday campaign is reducing it through not having to transport meat and to think about that. But also thinking about if we reduce that, then maybe we'll need less cows in the first place."
She says Canada is one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gasses per capita, and making a little change can lead to big results.
Burian is also encouraging people to ask their MP's and MLA's to act to make a change, and check out the new petition released from the Canadian Climate Strikers, who have just put out a national call for action, the Emergency Call for Climate Justice, which demands governments make changes to fight climate change.
"We want to legislate bold emissions targets so that we are meeting 65% reductions by the year 2040. So that is way bigger than what is even thought about now. And the other huge huge one is to make sure we're not building any more fossil fuel projects."
She says they want to see a just transition to renewable energy, meaning creating new green jobs that fossil fuel workers can move into seamlessly.
Burian says Canada has to start making changes to reduce it's emissions, because every little bit counts. It's the youth who will be inheriting the earth, and they'd prefer it to be a healthy one.