In 2010 I spent a few days in Îles de la Madeleine shooting some video around the area where a proposed deep water oil drilling project which is named after the beach area in the North of the small Islands called Old Harry.

Take a look at the video and feel free to contact your MLA or MP to ask what they are doing to make sure that coastal communities are protected from an oil spill in Atlantic Canada.

The music is by Halifax band “It Kills” and the song it called “Sailors”

Tagged: Îles de la Madeleine, Corridor Resources, Gulf of St. Lawrence, It Kills, Offshore Oil, Old Harry, Sailors, St. Lawrence Gulf

Ask And You Shall Receive Seems To Sum Up My Day Yesterday

Yesterday was weird, not just for the fact for the first time in the past three years not attending the UNFCCC negotiations which are taking place in Cancun, Mexico but mostly for getting into two multi-Tweet arguments. First with an contributor to the @NationalPost articles which say hey we don’t need action on climate change and the second was with an employee of a green washing company based in Calgary who keeps on trying to defend @OilGasCanada when Canadian Oil industry compare tar sands to house hold food products like peanut butter and the toxic bi-product sludge to yogurt.

These Twitter exchanges happen every now and them but to correct someone who contributes to a national newspaper was certainly the icing on the cake when you telling them to do a little bit more research before they start spreading lies to discredit things. (In this case it was @FossilOfTheDay and who runs it) I continued on with the day thinking that was some good victories for the day.

Since I rarely expect any other sort of engagement through Twitter aside from keeping up with what friends are doing, chatting back and forth with many of the people who I have meet around the world that I don’t get to talk to on a daily basis in person (aside the above mentioned fight even now and then). Yesterday I sent a Tweet to @MargaretAtwood who is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist (and probably one of Canada most amazing authors) not expecting her to share it due to her busy schedule but she did share it, and share it to her large audience on Twitter of 104,643 Followers.

With the excitement of such a well known Canadian actually listening to what I had said on Twitter this morning I though ‘Hey Why Not’ and send off a message to the Prime Minister of Canada, yes right to @PMHarper himself.  While I always am chatting back and forth with @PMOHarper out of the many messages I have sent to the real Prime Minister I have yet to get one reply. I am starting to think that he actually is the fake.

While I don’t expect to have Mr. Harper to Re-Tweet my message to him (although others already have), I do think that if enough other Canadian started to voice their concerns over how badly our international image is being TARnished with the current governments actions to protect our domestic Tar Sands industry over the safe future of the human population that at some point the PM would have get out of bed for once and start to actually do the needed work that is at hand.

Watch Stephen Harper & Tony Clement in Bed With Big Oil

 

To those Canadian who are listening and working on real solutions to the climate change crisis I want to say “Thank You”

Tagged: @MargaretAtwood, @NationalPost, @OilGasCanada, @PMHarper. PM Harper, @PMOHarper, Canadian Youth Delegation, Cancun, Climate Change, CYD Cancun, Margaret Atwood, Mexico, Online Activism, Tar Sands, UNFCCC

Tagged: Cablegate, Copenhagen, UNFCCC

While this comes as no surprised at all, I would like to thank both Mike de Souza and Malorie Beauchemain for their hard work and timely release of the following article which shows the Canadian Government working closely with the Bush administration and big oil companies to weaken action on climate change. Canadian diplomats sought [...]

“COP16 is the last legs that the UNFCC has and in the upcoming two weeks if there is no concrete results it will be exposed that the [UNFCCC] process is just as problematic as any other top down approach like the G8 or G20. You cannot re-brand your capitalist models when there is never going to be a correct price reflective to a safe & healthy of the environment we live in”

“So to all of those attending COp16 in Cancun I urge you to take the next two weeks to work alongside those impacted by climate change and to not make decisions without having the proper input which will result in false solutions.”

The steam might have been let out with the end result from COP15 in Copenhagen but there certainly is not a loss of hope that as intelligent species that there can be resolution to the climate crisis, but the UNFCCC is certainly under many watchful eyes (in Mexico & internationally) to make sure that yet another year is not wasted without taking strong action collectively to ensure that there is a safe climate to allow for our existence on this planet. With other global bodies like the G20 being unable to meet their promises of ending fossil fuel subsidies and mounting pressure from the grassroots level the next two weeks could create the spark which is needed to mobilize larger bases of people to step forward and be the leadership which has been lacking from those who should have the political will to switch our economies from the destructive fossil fuels into the more small scale, community controlled solutions which will be the opportunities that take our current economic situation and turn it on its head.

With Canada’s usual role of protecting the largest embarrassment to Canadians in the form of the Tar Sands as this current governments top priority, the leadership will have to come from Canadians who stand for action for climate justice and not those being barriers to help keep afloat an industry which disregards human rights violations as something that goes with the price of business while holding their hands out for taxpayers dollars and a country who at one point was a world leader turning its back on the international community just to become an energy producing economy. The testing grounds for marginal oil and squeezing every last drop from any location be it in sands in some of the most ecologically important areas of the world or to the deep underwater deposits which cannot be safely controlled and greatly impact marine life and ecosystems which we still have not fully understood shows that we are fighting an large up hill battle but the power to make the change still is held in the everyday decisions we make in our lives.

Be it refusing to bank with institutions which finance environmental destruction, using pedal/walking power over combustion powered transportation, educating ourselves better to being closer allies with those who are leading the grassroots resistance because until we get past the concept that this issue will be resolved with fancy ad campaigns or strategic planning sessions and start to listen to those who are directly impacted which have been excluded from the discussions on how to resolve the issues at hand and the lessons which have been passed down over time we will just keep spinning in circles wondering why we are not making any progress.

“Together the ants will conquer the elephant”

Tagged: Cancun, Climate Justice, COP16, Copenhagen, UNFCCC