Nelson joins rest of Canada at 'Defend Our Climate' rallies
By Nelson Daily Staff
Speakers, singer-songwriters, and even Bob from Kaslo, trekked to the microphone to voice displeasure with corporate Canada during the “Defend Our Climate” protest Saturday afternoon at the Nelson City Hall Courtyard.
“Put your finger in the pipes,” organizer Keith Wiley told the crowd of 200 plus concerned citizens.
Nelson was one of 130 protests stages across Canada to Saturday as thousands of Canadians from all three coastlines joined forces to voice their opposition to reckless tar sands expansion, pipelines and runaway climate change.
“We’ve already witnessed the affects here in the West Kootenay of climate change,” said David Reid of the West Kootenay EcoSociety referring to the recent mudslide Johnsons Landing that killed four people in 2012.
Most recently, but not directly due to climate change or pipelines, residents of the Slocan Valley got a first-hand taste of what could happen should any of the proposed or current pipelines burst with the truck tanker spill at Lemon Creek said singer-songwriter Brian Rosen.
Speaker Gary from Sandpoint made a special trip north of the border to explain to the crowd climate change is just not reserved for Canada.
The Idaho speaker told the crowd about concerns over proposed coal export facilities near Seattle that would see an increase in coal trains flowing through community.
Protests included Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto, Prince George, Repulse Bay, Nunavut, and Invermere with the largest protest of the day in Vancouver outside the Science World that attracted more than 1,000 people.
Protests were held Saturday to coincide with climate talks in Poland and the expectation of major pipeline decisions over the coming months.
The biggest concern to BC residents is a possible decision over the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project now that the Premiers of Alberta, Alison Redford, and BC, Christy Clark, are now back on speaking terms.
If approved the 1,200-kilometre Enbridge Northern Gateway project twin pipeline would carry about 525,000 barrels of petroleum per day from the Alberta oil sands to the B.C. coast for shipment by tankers.
The project has been under scrutiny of the federal Joint Review Panel, which is expected to deliver its final report on the pipeline proposal by the end of this year.
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