W3 – Working in a Warming World

UFCW Canada is a partner organization of York University’s Adapting Canadian work and workplaces to respond to climate change (ACW) and Working in a Warming World (W3).

Climate change affects work and employment in every region of the world, and Canada is no exception. Its impact on jobs and work is significant and up until recently, hasn’t been high on the agenda of Canadian businesses or government.

It is already changing the way we work, what we produce and where we produce it. It shifts employment within and between countries, regions and communities, and dislocates people, industries and futures.

The ACW W3 initiative is a research partnership among academics and community partners, including UFCW Canada in an effort to bring labour back into Canadian focus in the struggle to slow global warming.

Understanding global warming

Not all greenhouse gases are bad. Our planet produces natural greenhouse gases, and without it our planet’s average temperature would drop by 21 degrees Celsius to an uncomfortable -18 degrees Celsius.

The problem we face is with the anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. Increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gases directly contribute to the increase in global temperatures that will inevitably lead to catastrophe for mankind.

Just as a reduction in greenhouse gasses would negatively affect us by lowering the planet’s average surface temperature to an unbearably uncomfortable -18 degrees Celsius, the same is true on the flip side. Raising the planet’s average surface temperature is already wreaking havoc with our fragile ecosystem, and the evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:

• Most of the increase in the Earth’s warming has occurred since the 1970s.

• The 20 warmest years have occurred since 1981.

• 10 of the warmest years ever recorded in Earth's history, have occurred in the past 12 years.

• In the last century, global sea levels rose by 17 centimetres.

• Rising oceans.

• Melting ice shields.

• Decreased snow cover.

We have to take action to help the future health of our planet.

UFCW Canada is Canada’s most progressive union and we have a role to play in the field of climate change. UFCW Canada has partnered with York University’s ACW W3 program to focus on adapting Canadian work and workplaces to respond to climate change with labour’s involvement as its focal point.