Worried about their grandkids' future, more seniors are taking up the climate fight

On a Saturday morning in April, a clutch of seniors gathered on a busy corner in Toronto's financial district to raise a little hell — or "good trouble," in the words of 82-year-old John Hout.

The target of Hout's ire — and that of about 20 other silver-haired agitators — was RBC, the Canadian banking giant, for remaining heavily invested in the oil and gas industry and a major financier of the controversial Coastal GasLink project in northern B.C., which is being built on unceded Wet'suwet'en territory.

Wout came out to support the Wet'suwet'en because "they are on the front lines of both Indigenous rights, because that pipeline is being built across their territory without their permission, but also, it's a pipeline that's meant to expand fossil fuel extraction."

"That's all contributing to global warming, and instead of decreasing our carbon footprint, we're increasing it."

Also in the crowd was Peggy Lathwell, 78, who had come by bicycle.

"I'm terrified of what we're doing to the environment, to the Earth," she said. "I just see us heading like lemmings over the cliff."

The gathering was the work of Seniors for Climate Action Now! (SCAN), and after a brief address from lead organizer Nick De Carlo, the group marched down the street to join other protest groups outside RBC's iconic gold-coated headquarters at Wellington and Bay streets.

There, they hoisted placards, chanted anti-capitalist slogans and listened to a variety of speakers excoriate RBC's investment practices. At one point, a number of SCAN members even donned masks for a bit of street theatre, in which they spoofed a climate debate with bankers.

The April 1 action, dubbed Fossil Fools Day, took place in cities across Canada and was the latest in a series of demonstrations against RBC, now the world's biggest financier of fossil fuel projects, according to a new report by the advocacy group Banking on Climate Chaos.

It was also evidence that an older cohort has become galvanized to take climate action. Inspired by the passion and reach of young activists like Greta Thunberg, Canadian groups like SCAN, Climate Legacy and Grand(m)others Act to Save the Planet (GASP) are becoming increasingly visible and vocal. 

"It's not that we've had to convince people that it's important to join our group," said De Carlo, 76. "People have gravitated to us."

De Carlo, who worked in the health and safety department of the Canadian Auto Workers union for 17 years, says he became environmentally conscious in the late 1980s, while helping to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals inside and outside factories. 

He said the work of David Suzuki and U.S. environmental author Rachel Carson also greatly shaped his views.

Seniors for Climate Action Now! was born in July 2020, when De Carlo and four like-minded Toronto-area acquaintances signed a statement of purpose and posted it to Facebook.