Co-written with Maryam Adrangi
Last week saw the culmination of the Quebec Climate Action Camp, the most recent in a series of similar events around the world. Climate Camps look different in different places, but the general idea is to bring together like-minded people from around a region to build common strategies, share skills, and take ACTION!
The Tar Sands have been a focal point this year; in the UK Climate Camp brought together activists challenging the Royal Bank of Scottland’s investments in the Canadian gigaproject. Here in Dunham, Quebec, climate camp was set up to challenge a pipeline coming through this community. The proposed pipeline is called the Enbridge Trailbreaker project, and would bring dirty tar sands bitumen to Montreal and then down to Maine, eventually ending on tankers heading to refineries in the Gulf Coast.
The camp brought together activists from across Quebec, Ontario, the Northeastern US, and beyond, to learn about the intersections of climate and social justice issues, and plan out how to best work together in the coming year. Participants cooked, fed, and set up camp outside and were able to build lasting relationships between various communities to talk about how to build a climate movement.
Resistance to tar sands projects has been growing in Canada and people are taking action locally to end the addiction to fossil fuels and the injustices facing communities because of the dirty industry.
The two-week climate camp ended with a march to the proposed pumping station for the pipeline. Local community member and climate camp participants rallied at the proposed site. “Our objective is to unite in order to act on the root causes of climate change. It is the right time to denounce and block the Trailbreaker project. Local communities and ecosystems cannot afford more oil spills, like that in the Gulf of Mexico.” says Pierre-Olivier Parent, a Climate Action Camp organizer.
Check out some of the media stories about the camp here, and stay up on Quebec action from Climate Justice Montreal
Moments like this are just another signal of increasingly mobilized action-oriented groups who are supporting communities resisting point-source fossil fuel destruction. A couple days ago in the Bay Area, 150 people took action on BP, Chevron, and the EPA, with 26 participating in civil disobedience. Its an exciting moment – lets keep building.
Oui!
Welcoming initiatives by various environment activists across the world. Such kind of action camps, climate camps should take place more often now to rapidly generate awareness about the issues like global warming, climate change, etc. to take quick and cumulative actions so as to face these issues effectively and work towards making the planet earth green and eco-friendly for generations to come. Considering the increase in incidents like ice-sheet melting in Antarctica, rise in sea level, heavy rain falls, etc. the issues like oil spills, carbon emission can not be overlooked and should be resolved then and there by coming together.
Here I would like to suggest you a great website that I came across where you can raise a petition for various environmental issues, create communities, groups, and can learn much more on how you can do your bit about environment, sustainability, climate change, biodiversity, clean energy, green living, reducing your carbon footprint and so on, visit http://www.elpis.com