Steve Lee

The cliché is true: young Canadians are our future. They’re also the most at risk, not just from a changed climate, but from changing career options. In resource-rich, climate-skeptical and rural remote communities, this is magnified: Young Canadians are often left out of the loop – and the conversation – when it comes to understanding both the opportunities a low carbon economy will hold, and critically, the impacts climate action will impose on resource extraction industries.    Steve set out to engage 1 million students – the 3% of Canadians most impacted by these issues. Driving overnight from small town to even smaller town, sometimes sleeping in his plug-in hybrid electric car, he visited over 500 schools in more than 400 towns across Canada, presenting facts often unheard in resource community curriculums, helping high school students understand the changing landscapes they would face.  His work was so impactful in dinner table conversations that he became public enemy #1 for Jason Kenney’s newly elected government and, at 27, was subject to hate and death threats.  He persisted, along the way collecting significant insights into students’ concerns that resulted in a 198 page report, since widely shared with MPs across party lines.