“Just Ask” is the current mantra of the Perth and district chapter of Seniors for Climate. Aimed at the residents of Lanark County and North Frontenac Township, the 250 members of the chapter want to get the people and politicians of the area not only thinking about climate issues but doing something about them.

“Climate change and the resulting damage is no longer just a big government issue,” says Doug Norman, a co-chair of the organization’s Perth and District Chapter. “The floods, fires and heat are an everyday problem for all of us.”

Local councils have a crucial part to play. He says it is time to start pushing the men and women on our municipal councils to think about the environment — to consider the effects that climate changes are going to have on our communities, and what they plan to do about it.

To that end, Seniors for Climate’s local chapter has spent the past month coming up with a plan to drive home the severity of these issues. Hence, the “Just Ask” campaign.

The key, explains Norman, is a campaign that is not only simple, but forces politicians at the municipal level to include mitigation and prevention in their vocabularies and plans.

Starting with a long list of questions that covered practically every facet of climate change and environmental damage, the local chapter’s steering committee pared the list down to six “What are you going to about it?” questions.

As the municipal elections storm toward voting day on Monday, October 26, the questions will be distributed in flyers to electors at public meetings and other locations. They will also be emailed to the membership, which residents can join by contacting seniorsforclimateperth@gmail.com.

Seniors for Climate want to make it clear that the concerns we all have about potholes, road and sidewalk plowing, recreation, taxes, and… well, everything else that make our immediate world turn around, are also important.

The organization is “just asking” electors to delve a little deeper than when that three-foot dump of snow will be removed from the roads and to focus on why there is so much snow and freezing rain.

This past summer we have lived through horrendous rains, heat and wildfires that have killed, destroyed, and generally made living pretty tough. Farmlands have been washed away as a result of floods. Heat and fires have destroyed crops, forests and homes. All three have killed and will continue to kill. The World Economic Forum has warned that if things don’t change, the climate crisis could cause more than 14 million deaths over the next 20 years.

So when candidates for municipal council come knocking to ask for your support and vote, Seniors for Climate would like area residents to ask the politicians what they are going to do about it.

Suggested questions:

Of course, there is nothing stopping anyone from coming up with their own questions. Everyone is encouraged to think about what’s coming as climate change evolves, and “Just Ask.”