Whitehorse citizens are looking for leadership in the fight against climate change, city council heard at its meeting Monday night.

A number of residents signed up to address council on what was supposed to be the night council discussed a motion by Coun. Steve Roddick to have the city declare a climate change emergency.

As a result of a procedural matter, however, the discussion on Roddick’s motion was rescheduled to next week.

But as delegates at Monday’s meeting were putting forward passionate pleas on behalf of themselves, their children and the planet, three hours to the east, the House of Commons was declaring a climate emergency in Canada.

Riverdale resident Erica Mah told council ever since the United Nations report on climate change was released last October with unsettling predictions, she’s been having trouble sleeping.

And she’s not the only one, she said.

Mah cited the report’s finding that if global warming is not brought under control by 2030 – 11 years from now – the world will face dire consequences.

As part of a national effort to achieve a “Pact for a Green New Deal,” Mah organized a local town hall meeting on climate change for the evening of May 31, one of 131 across the country held in the last two weeks of May.

The mother of two young children told council some 80 people attended, and together they came up with 200 different ideas.

A couple of days later, it was standing-room-only at the Whitehorse Public Library for a meeting organized by Yukoners Concerned, she pointed out.

“Your citizens are deeply concerned about climate change and what it means for the community,” Mah said in her address to council.

“More than anything, people are looking for leadership, they are looking for leadership that makes them proud to be part of a community that is rising up to this incredible challenge.”

Among the key recommendations coming from the meeting she organized, she said, were increasing local food production, improving the energy efficiency of buildings, and a stop to spending money on infrastructure that relies on fossil fuels.

Roddick’s motion calls for four specific resolutions, including: “Be it resolved that administration be directed to enhance the City’s response to current and future impacts of climate change by: Within council’s strategic priorities, identifying actions that accelerate the implementation of existing climate plans and strategies, and developing new budgetary proposals to advance this work for council’s consideration in the 2019-2020 budget cycle....”

City council heard from others in support of the councillor’s motion, including Jenny George, also a mother of a young child and a high school teacher.

She helped Mah with the town hall at NorthLight Innovations.

“We had to close the doors because we were at capacity,” George told council. “This is something that is motivating people.”

She said people are not coming together out fear, but out of hope.

“We are not doing much at this point,” she said. “So it’s time to take a stand, and we are looking for leadership, and I think, as Erica said, the municipality is a great place to start.”

George was tripped up momentarily by emotion, having to pause briefly.

“I am very sorry,” she told council. “I am a little scared for my son, and for all my students.”

Roddick assured George he does not want to be the last generation of politicians who could have done more but did not.

“If the city takes that leadership role, I think you would find your constituents are behind you,” George responded.

Ecologist Kim Lisgo, a researcher at the University of Alberta, told council that 95 per cent of the world’s scientists are cautioning how climate warming is dire, yet there are still pockets of resistance, even locally.

Lisgo relayed how she read a blog comment from an individual who suggested the air in the Yukon is still fresh, and that’s what matters.

“The Yukon does not live in a bubble on this planet,” Lisgo countered.

She pointed out how the International Monetary Fund is warning climate change will bring about economic turmoil, and vast migrations of people no longer able to survive in their regions.

“The scariest thing to do is not to act at all,” she said.

Local environmental activist Jody Overduin told council she was reluctant to appear at Monday’s meeting.

“When I think about my son, I felt I had to come and speak,” she said.

Overduin said she believes municipal governments are well-positioned to act on climate change in the quickest way.

There is no longer a question about whether the climate is in trouble, she said.

At this point, she suggested, it’s a matter of what we do, and what we don’t do.

“I think declaring a climate emergency is a real tangible thing we can do at this point,” she told council. “I see a lot of things we can do as a municipality to take the lead.”

But Peter Becker, another local activist, was critical of past decisions by previous councils.

He was critical of how he believes city councils have failed to establish a solid foundation from which to address climate change.

Electric transit buses are common these days, and communities are making the switch away from diesel, he pointed out, suggesting Whitehorse is lagging behind.

Becker said he was appearing before council in support of Roddick’s motion.