“System Change Not Climate Change!” Fire This Time Holds Critical and Dynamic Discussion in Vancouver By Alison Bodine
Look around the world today and it is clear that something has got to change if human life on planet earth is going to continue. For more than two centuries capitalism has been wreaking havoc on the fragile balance between humanity and the environment. Today the question is impossible to avoid: Environment. Humanity. Capitalism. For how long can they continue to co-exist? On May 12, 2017 Fire This Time held a public forum in Vancouver to discuss this question and the serious challenge that climate change is posing to the humanity’s sustainability and very survival.
After beginning the evening with films and multimedia about the reality and causes of climate change around the world, the forum featured presentations by two leading organizers in the environmental movement in Vancouver.
Gordon August, spoke first as a Hereditary chief from Shíshálh (Sechelt), organizer with the Fight C and Climate
Convergence Coalitions and a social justice and environmental activist for nearly four decades. Gordon’s presentation was focused on the environmental and human destruction that would be caused by the construction of the Site C Dam Gordon August, Thomas Davies & Alison Bodine in BC, and his passion and clarity at the May 12, 2017 Fire This Time public forum. about the necessity of ending this disastrous project came through clearly the climate just movement is stronger when people are united and mobilized. in his words. Following Gordon, Thomas Davies, a Their critical perspectives were followed member of the Editorial Board of the Fire by an energetic discussion that especially This Time newspaper, founding member highlighted the necessity to maintain of the Climate convergence coalition and a consistent and dynamic movement a unionized pipefitter spoke. Thomas for climate justice, no matter what highlighted the role of the governments government may form in British of the US and Canada in perpetuating Columbia following the May 9 election. the climate crisis, but he also focused on the importance of building a fight back against environmental destruction as well as the violation of indigenous rights and sovereignty. From the struggle against the Kinder Morgan pipeline here in BC, to the tar sands expansion in Alberta, to the Dakota Access Pipeline in South Dakota, Thomas reminded everyone that
By the end of the forum, one important ideas was crystal clear, as capitalism continues to send us all towards environmental and human catastrophe, we have no other choice but to organize and fight back. We need to change the system, not the climate. Follow Alison Bodine on Twitter: @Alisoncolette
VANCOUVER PROTESTS TRUDEAU...AGAIN! Justin Trudeau’s presence in Vancouver was protested yet again on May 18. This is sure to be an ongoing tradition as long as the Prime Minister maintains his pro-pipeline policies. Trudeau has not been able to come to Vancouver without a protest since his decision to approve the Kinder Morgan and Line 3 pipelines last year. Organized on four days notice by the Vancouver Climate Convergence coalition, 300 protestors chanted loudly and held large banners outside of a fancy downtown hotel while Trudeau spoke at a $750 a plate Liberal fundraising event inside.
The chant of, “Hey Hey, Trudeau, Kinder Morgan has Got to Go!” has become a familiar sound in Vancouver and across Canada, and once again rally participants confirmed their determination that the Kinder Morgan pipeline will never be built regardless of his attempts to force the project through.
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