I was under the impression that Canada and the world were going to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. Did those people who bought new Priuses and installed private power plants on wild rivers help reduce our carbon footprint? Doesn’t appear so. Now, here we are, in “Super Natural British Columbia,” acting as enablers to Oilaholic Alberta/Ottawa as they try to turn Vancouver and Kitimat into Tar Sands' shipping ports. We are, in oxymoronic terms, amateur whores permitting devastating spills in our pristine marine environment.
And make no mistake: Oil spills are not risks, because when there is no time limit, the risk approaches a certainty. No amount of corporate or government sweeteners can change that, but we’re bombarded by PR flacks pontificating that studies have been done and all modern technology blah, blah, blah.
The governments elected to protect us are in cahoots with oil, pipeline and tanker companies, to degrade and ruin our province for money and prestige. If you think former Premier Campbell’s sinecure in London had nothing to do with the HST and oil, drop me a line about the bridge I have for sale.
A Recovery Plan
How do we reduce our oil appetite when our neighbors won’t? It’s a three-stage process:
1. Change: First, we must decide, seriously, that we are prepared to change our lifestyles, drastically, or nature will make the changes for us. As long as we ask government to change policy but reduce our energy bills, they will mine sludge heaps, destroy landscapes, ship oil over our province, down our coast, and treat us like a resource colony.
No one is suggesting that we live in penury, but we can turn computers off, wear sweaters, ride the bus, and live simpler lives. We have to do that much, but it isn’t nearly enough.
Twenty years of Kyoto negotiations and carbon taxes, and we have more CO2 emissions and a hotter planet. What’s going on? A great realization is sweeping through environmental circles and communities of hardworking citizens. We trusted governments and corporations to join the battle to preserve nature, only to discover they’re in cahoots with each other for money and power. We have to make the change in our communities.
2. Real Politics: We must all get politically active, not just coddle political parties. We must set the agenda and demand any political party we support commits to serious change as the price of our support. We’ve seen too many alleged environmental groups line up like puppy dogs behind half-baked “green” initiatives that sold out our land, water, rivers, and even our communities. No more watered-down deals, negotiated by jet-set green hucksters because they get “traction.” We will no longer accept leadership from corporations or their public relations lackeys, or fake “think” tanks like the Fraser Institute. Soft, greenish compromises comprise the corporate modus operandi.
When we get politically involved and insist on genuine solutions, real protection of nature, then, and only then will we be truly involved in the struggle to save our province and, indeed, the whole world.
3. Support the Doers: Finally, we must support groups that are genuinely fighting to save our land and water. Witness the courageous Yinka Dene Alliance who turned down millions of dollars from Enbridge to protect their land from the oil merchants, took a leadership role, and created the Fraser River Declaration, now signed by 61 nations, including the Musqueam.
The Tsleil-Waututh – People of the Inlet – and Squamish spiritual leaders have stepped forward to lead. Support that leadership. Today, you can find environmental groups with good research teams, mining facts and making them available to us in digestible portions. Network with these researchers, learn, and pass the information on. That is why Damien Gillis and I founded Common Sense Canadian.
Specifically, we must support those who have made the stopping of pipelines and tankers their #1 priority. TankerFreeBC is the one group that has insisted on a ban of ALL tar sands crude oil tankers on BC’s west coast and has made this its #1 priority.
Support Tankerfreebc.org, Wilderness Committee, Council of Canadians, some of the hard-core Greenpeace people – are helping, but TankerFreeBC is our local citizen’s group and they need your support. Fund the real activists.
There Will Be Handcuffs
I might as well spit it out: corporate environmentalism and coddling politicians is not working. We must march and picket and refuse to give way. We will be called upon to disobey the law. And, we must be prepared to go to jail. We face a foe with limitless money, which will hire the world’s best liars to inundate us with green hype. They buy front groups with “Green” or “Citizen” in their name to fill the airwaves with propaganda that would make Dr.Goebbels proud. They buy formerly serious environmentalists to deliver the talking points. And they will buy fake justice, corrupt politicians, and will throw decent citizens in jail for protecting their heritage.
This is an 'Avatar' moment in BC. We’ll need a defense fund, started now with a trustee to administer legal expenses for those arrested citizens, and living expenses for those who lose work. Our voices need to rise up in BC, or we’ll see this province sold off to US corporate giants like General Electric and Kinder Morgan. One day we’ll wake up to find the natural beauty of this province traded for trinkets.
Now…let's go to work, beat the bastards and save our heritage before it is too late!
Rafe Mair is one of Canada’s more committed journalists, a former radio talk show host, former BC MLA and Cabinet Minister, and co-founder of The Common Sense Canadian. Time For Action: Corporate Environmentalism Isn’t Working was previously printed in the Watershed Sentinel, the independent voice for environmental news in British Columbia. Visit: http://www.watershedsentinel.ca
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