Dear CBC,
 
We are asking you to step up in your role as Canada’s public broadcaster to meet the climate emergency head on.  Canada needs you; Canadians need you.  You are our trusted source of information and have been since your inception.  It’s time you treated the climate emergency like the emergency it is.
 
Climate change is an existential threat.  it is our future that is threatened and the future of our children and grandchildren.
 
The CBC served a vital role during World War II in changing the hearts and minds of Canadians to not only join the war effort but to fully support it.  It was a source of facts and inspiration with daily broadcasts keeping Canadians informed and ensuring that focus was maintained on the war effort.  Read Seth Klein's book:  A Good War, Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency.  And his blog here: sethklein.ca 
 
Similarly, the CBC is currently filling a critical role in informing the public about the pandemic with broadcasts several times a day, informing us of cases and new developments, covering press briefings at the national and provincial levels and keeping us focused on the things we need to do to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our community.  
 
We ask that you do the same for the climate emergency.  Time is of the essence. We have a lot to do and very little time to do it in. 
 
The climate emergency needs to have a presence on your website, with its own title, right on the banner line.  It needs to be covered daily in your newscasts along with business, sports and the weather.  We need to be informed, inspired, challenged and nudged in the right direction. 

We have a lot of ground to cover in a very short time line and we need to be focused.  You can help us with that.  Please don’t frighten us with catastrophes and doomsday scenarios; that will only paralyze us into inaction.   Encourage and support us but give us the facts and continue to focus us in the right direction.  Inspire us with examples of what others are doing. 
 
Canada agreed to increase public education and awareness when it signed the Paris Agreement.  Canadians need a trusted source of easily accessible, comprehensive but understandable information on the climate emergency.  There are so many issues to understand and there is much work to be done.  We need the data, the indicators, the objectives, the goals and the targets.   What do we have to do between now and 2030?  Between now and 2050?  We need daily coverage several times a day, more in depth and dedicated coverage on particular issues, facts with comparisons to others, and lots of simple but informative charts and graphs.  

Every Canadian should know how many megatons of GHG Canada generates every year and know how much it has to be reduced each and every year to get us to net zero by 2050.  Every resident of every province should know how much GHG their province emits and what the yearly targets are for reduction.  These numbers should be top of mind and we all need to be familiar with what the path is to accomplish net zero.  

We need regular updates on where we are now and where we need to be.  Are we making progress?  What else needs to be done?  How do we get there?  What do we need to do as individuals and what do we need to do as a country?  We need information that is easily understood so that all of us know what lies ahead.  And we need not only national but regional, provincial and local coverage.
 
We listen to your weekly program, What on Earth, and love it but we need so much more from you. 
 
CBC, will you step up and help us with the enormous task that we must all face together?   It's time to treat the climate emergency like the emergency it is.  

Thank you,

Aim4Action 

Please sign our petition and email your request to the following CBC Board Members and Executives:

catherine.tait@cbc.ca,  support@cbcradio-canada.zendesk.com 

marco.dube@cbc.ca, sylvie.gadoury@cbc.ca, claude.galipeau@cbc.ca, 

carol.najm@cbc.ca, barbara.williams@cbc.ca 

johnny.michel@cbc.ca, anita.lasebnik@cbc.ca, jack.nagler@cbc.ca, 

brodie.fenlon@cbc.ca 

Tweet to the following:

@CBC @CBCNews @cbcradio @CBCNS @CBCNB @CBCPEI

@CBCNL @CBCQuebec  @CBCToronto @CBCOttawa @CBCManitoba 

@CBCSask @CDCEdmonton @CBCCalgary @cbcnewsbc

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Thank you, 

Aim4Action