CORNWALL, Ontario – On Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021, The City of Cornwall’s Sustainability project co-ordinator Angela Parker, and Future Climate Leaders project co-ordinator Lee Theodore launched the Let’s Talk about Climate Change survey.
The Let’s Talk about Climate Change survey measured the awareness and support of people in Cornwall, and other communities within Eastern Ontario on Climate Change, the City of Cornwall’s plans, and to measure the impact that Climate Change has in their lives.
The survey reached 2,500 people, but was completed by 1,073 people, surpassing their goal of 1000 respondents. Cornwall held the majority of respondents, with 757. In addition, 284 were from another community within Eastern Ontario, and 22 were outside the area. The age demographic for the respondents was 696 for adults 31 to 64, 140 for people 30 and under, and 237 for people 65 and over.
The survey demonstrated that most respondents believe in climate change, and want to take action against it.
“This accumulation of sentiment also tells me that we have more vocal people pushing for a sustainable future than the perceived smaller group that are challenged with the realities of climate change, which is that climate change is the result of, yes, natural change but sped up and altered, through human activity,” said Theodore.
On the other hand, most respondents were not aware of Cornwall’s Eco Day, Food Waste Plan, Environment and Climate Change Committee.
“The ability to communicate. A stronger marketing program-with resource support, is what the city needs to consider, seriously. Behind that, strong consideration of what messaging needs to be,” said Theodore. “Within the FCL space, there is a strong intention to create a year long schedule for what activities are taking place within the sustainable space, to better aid, not only individuals navigating this space but also for organizations to find out where they can partner and most important of all, be aware of each other’s dates. In doing so, better marketing can be achieved, from this vantage point.” added Theodore.
“With respect to outcomes from this data, it will be the City of Cornwall that will be the champion of how this information will be used in the facilitation of their programming. As it stands, the City of Cornwall needs to be a primary sponsor of change in our community and this data will certainly help guide their future considerations regarding local awareness and action on climate change,” said Theodore.
