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Ontario Environment Minister Glen Murray poses a question to a young environmental advocate at the Royal Ontario Museum on Friday, July 3, 2015, as he announced $1-million in funding will be given over three years to children’s conservation organization Earth RangersLayla Bozich/The Globe and Mail

Ontario will provide $1-million over the next three years to Earth Rangers, a 110,000-member environmental conservation organization in Canada that teaches children how they can help protect the planet, Glen Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, announced Friday.

"Fortunately, as this government has also recognized [and] as we have seen in the past through issues like littering, recycling and even smoking, children can be a driving force for change," said Peter Kendall, executive director of Earth Rangers.

The funding will be used to bring Earth Rangers' school-wide assembly program, which goes to elementary schools across Ontario, to 150 additional elementary schools every year.

It will also be used to develop a new Grade 6 classroom visit program that is focused on climate change,.

Funding will also be used to create one new climate change mission per year for Earth Rangers. Some of the missions already being performed include energy and water conservation programs at home, building pollinator gardens, shore line cleanups and creating a birdfeeder out of recycled materials.

Earth Rangers, established in 2001, is dedicated to educating children ages 5-11 about how to help protect animals and their habitats.

"The most thoughtful discussions that move people to change are discussions between children and their parents, and children and each other," said Mr. Murray. "If you can take a reputable organization like Earth Rangers and give them funding, they expand that conversation and get more people educated about climate change in a way that they start to understand the things they can do about it."

During the announcement at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Mr. Murray also called on people to purchase hybrid or electric vehicles, ride a bike, walk, buy local food or retrofit their homes to reduce carbon emissions.

"The only thing I can do to protect [my children and grandchildren] is try to get all the other parents and grandparents to emit less carbon," said Mr. Murray.

With files from The Canadian Press

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