SUDBURY – It's been a busy few months for climate change crusaders.
Their cause has been front and centre in giant marches around the world.
On November 1 in Sudbury, a young activist and her friends were recognized for their efforts.
"I'm going to be giving all the youth little bandanas because Greta Thunberg received and Amnesty International Award, and it's kind of representing an Amnesty International Award," says Sophia Mathur, Fridays for Future.
Standing on snowy streets outside Sudbury's City Hall, the ceremony comes after an early blast of winter, and the city is publicly blaming climate change as the reason it has to regularly go over budget on winter maintenance.
"We're seeing this across the country, in fact. I know lots of municipalities, not just the city of Greater Sudbury, are starting to see the impact that changes in weather patterns are having on their annual winter control budgets," says Tony Ceccuti, City of Greater Sudbury.
The President of the Climate Risks Institute Al Douglas says there is merit to this argument.
"I think it's definitely valid. In the context of changing climate, we can expect more changes in weather. We can expect more intense precipitation. We can expect it to happen more often. We can expect extreme heat. I mean, these are the thing that challenge cities and ultimately challenge city budgets," he explained.
Mathur is proud of the work that has been done, and says the "we've accomplished a lot because the Greater City of Sudbury declared a climate emergency, and I feel a lot of people are taking awareness of this issue and starting to ask their politicians to take action."
She says while much has been done, there's still a long way to go in raising more awareness to continue to bring about what she sees as much needed change. She also adds that the next major local strike will be held at the end of November.
