Three years ago, at least partly a result of an unusually warm winter, climate change broke through mainstream media as a major issue. Today, I’m experiencing a bit of a déjà vu. It is mid-November and yesterday there was a high of 18 degrees in Toronto. While we might relish a balmy November day after the particularly crappy summer we had this year, it’s becoming increasingly hard to tell if this weather is in fact a symptom of our global carbon addiction or a fluke glimpse at what could be coming. Either way, it’s scary, and making me long for some cold November rain.

There has been a lot of conversation about climate change in the past three years, yet alarmingly little action, leaving me to wonder what it will take to get action. It is shocking how little concern we seem to have as a country for our own survival and the livelihood of our children and grandchildren. Thank goodness at least two major groups seem to hold their inspiration close.

A recent video from Moms Against Climate Change goes right for the emotional jugular, urging us all to remember the actions we take today have a long-lasting impact. Their website reminds Stephen Harper who he is representing at Copenhagen and that Canada cannot continue to undermine or drag its feet on international agreements towards reversing climate change.

Another organization that continually pops up has inspiration of literally biblical proportions: Kairos, a church-based social justice group, is working hard to get Canadians to sign KYOTOplus, a petition urging the Canadian government to extend and strength the Kyoto Protocol this December at the United Nations meeting on climate change, and to replace its current inadequate policy with a credible, urgent plan. You can sign the petition by visiting their website.

So go ahead—do your penance for delighting in the unseasonably warm weather. View the Moms Against Climate Change video and sign & share the KYOTOplus petition. After all, you’re Canadian. If you wanted warm weather you would have moved by now.  I hear the islands of Maldives are lovely this time of year.