For Andrew Weaver, BC Green Leader and climatologist, politics is a science
VANCOUVER — Andrew Weaver was teaching a class of University of Victoria undergraduates about climate science and public policy when he realized he needed to do more than just lecture.
The internationally recognized climate scientist, who was part of a team that shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, often asked students whether the present generation owed anything to future generations in terms of the environment it leaves behind.
Students usually agreed that their grandchildren deserved an Earth free of the worst impacts of climate change. But when Weaver asked whether they voted, they replied their votes didn’t count or that politicians were all corrupt.
“You have the power to change the system,” he remembers telling students. “If you’re not engaged in it, you have no one to blame but yourself.”