Natalie loses her cookies. But she's okay with that

Almost 75 people gathered in front of Sault Ste. Marie City Hall tonight.

To deliver a message.

"The world wants a real deal," they shouted. "Sault Ste. Marie wants a real deal."

No posters, flyers, newspaper or radio announcements brought them together.

It was word of mouth and Avaaz.org

Tonight's local candlelight vigil was held in conjunction with similar events all over the world this weekend, pushing for real solutions to global climate change.

"We want our leaders and our politicians to make the right decisions," said Andre Riopel, local cycling advocate. "We want to send a message to Copenhagen and we're going to do it via the Internet."

Many of the people in attendance are members of Avaaz.org and are advocates for local change that they say would be healthy for the environment and for people, too.

"A lot of people want to do something but they just don't know what," said local cycling activist Andre Riopel. "Avaaz has enough contacts all around the world to get people together to do things like this."

Over 3,000 locations are participating this weekend.

When Riopel saw that Sault Ste. Marie wasn't on the map, he decided to try to change that.

More than a few other Sault Ste. Marie Avaaz.org members were thinking the same thing.

Together, they managed to organize a local event in a few days, just by picking a time and place and distributing that to each other through Avaaz.org, e-mail lists and social networking sites like Facebook.

The event brought out familiar green activists and some who are relatively new to the local scene.

Like Natalie Diebolt, who, in addition to bringing a wealth of ideas to the event, brought homemade cookies.

She's seen with fellow Avaaz members and climate-change activists Jennifer Rowe and Kerry Vandaele.

"Come to the green side. We have cookies," Diebolt said with a smile. "Everyone gets hungry."

Diebolt, originally from Iroquois Falls, said she'd like to see more green roofs and walls in buildings in the Sault, both new buildings and existing ones.

She also wants to see it become simpler and easier to use Sault Transit and bicycles so more people would use human-powered transportation.

Sault Ste. Marie could become an example to other communities on how to promote, enhance and market green alternatives, she said.

A media release from Avaaz.org follows.

************************* Hundreds of climate change rallies and vigils across Canada December 12

OTTAWA - Canadians from coast to coast to coast are united and taking part in climate actions this weekend demanding that the government take concrete measures to reduce emissions to stem climate change.

Canada is joining millions of citizens in over 130 countries as part of 'The World Wants a Real Deal' global day of action coordinated by the Tck Tck Tck campaign to urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to sign a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal in Copenhagen.

"Canadian citizens have planned and registered more climate action events per capita than any other country," said Graham Saul, executive director of the Climate Action Network Canada. "Considering the numbers of people coming out and voicing their concerns on December 12th there is clearly a mandate here for real progress on climate change and this government is not in line with the interests of most Canadians."

Over three hundred events have been registered in cities and towns across Canada with large national rallies planned in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal. "The Toronto Climate Campaign is calling for Canada to support a deal that includes binding emission targets for developed nations, a global plan to cap total emissions at a level which would prevent the world from exceeding a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius, and commit developed nations to provide finance and technology transfers to assist developing nations with their mitigation and adaptation efforts," said John Bell, member of the Toronto Climate Campaign.

A Harris-Decima poll released just this week shows only 16% of Canadians think we're a respected leader on climate change, indicating a full 84% think this government is failing on the environment.

Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations weather agency, recently reported that the year 2009 is likely to be the warmest on record going back to 1850, while noting that the Arctic sea ice's extent during the melt season ranked the third lowest, after the lowest and second-lowest records set in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there will be 150 million 'climate refugees' by 2050 if global temperatures continue to rise unabated.

Young Canadians have taken critical leadership in organizing events, engaging civil society and demanding climate justice, "It is amazing to experience Canadian Youth stepping up to protect our future, filling the gap left by our leaders who are letting us down," said Courtney Quinn, of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition (CYCC).

Hundreds of thousands of people are attending rallies to send messages, post their photos and sign their names on message walls in support of a real deal.

Thousands more are hosting candlelight vigils in every corner of the planet to stand in hope and solidarity with climate victims and those vulnerable to climate change.

This global mandate comes at the mid-point of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Thus far, the Canadian government has been considered a laggard in the negotiations earning the not so prestigious 'Fossil of the Day Award' on numerous occasions.

The unprecedented numbers of rallies and actions show a growing and united movement with one clear demand: The world wants a real deal!

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