The climate emergency requires an urgent society-wide response. Join us for an evening with Christine Boyle – a city councillor and United Church Minister in Vancouver and a driving force for climate action by faith communities and municipal governments. Christine will share lessons from her work creating Spirited Social Change, an initiative aimed at engaging people across generations to explore the intersections between faith, spirituality, and our work for a better world, and from her more recent work successfully advocating for Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan, that has Vancouver on track to reduce carbon pollution by 50% by 2030. Christine was an early proponent of fossil fuel divestment campaigns, and founded Fossil Free Fatih. Her work in this field was inspirational for Divest Waterloo.
How is this happening? Some examples the report, which was 1 years in the making:
More young girls forced into marriage to help their families survive climate-related disasters.
As wells dry up, women travel further to collect water-increasing their exposure to sexual violence.
Women forced to exchange sex for a dwindling supply of fish
But funding solutions is a perennial challenge.
The US is the world’s biggest donor to women’s health-but a string of proposed budget cuts threaten those efforts, notes a Think Global Health series. Even though the cuts are consistently rejected by Congress, this uncertainty affects country-level planning every year.
Another piece urges African countries to act on the “lofty declarations” they sign — particularly by addressing the “unacceptable” ratio of maternal mortality.
On Thursday September 26, Chief Dsta’hyl of the Likht’samisyu Clan was blocked by Coastal Gaslink’s private security as he attempted to enter a community meeting at the Witset First Nation band office.
When Dsta’hyl gained entry to the meeting, he told David Pfeiffer, the president of CGL, that no pipelines will be allowed to cross sovereign Likht’samisyu territory – only the Likht’samisyu clan and the Likht’samisyu hereditary chiefs can make decisions affecting Likht’samisyu territory.
The Likht’samisyu stand in solidarity with the Unist’ot’en and the Gidumt’en people, and continue to reoccupy and protect their traditional territories.
Rita David interviewed at Wet’suwet’en Access Point (Jun 8, 2019)
Interview with Rita David, a Gidumt’en Clan Elder, taken as RCMP occupied Gidumt’en territory with a police detachment.
Brian Grandbois – Papa G’s Truth Bomb (Feb 19, 2019)
The Wolverine and Brian Grandbois (Feb 18, 2019)
Elder Warriors Wolverine and Brian Grandbois talk about what it means to them to be a warrior.
From an interview by Crystal Greene, Michael Toledano, Shannon Hecker, at Unist’ot’en Camp in 2014.
Brian Grandbois Speaks at Unist’ot’en Action Camp (Feb 18,2019)
Brian Grandbois, Dene from Cold Lake, talks about the multiple front lines in Dene territory and cumulative impacts from industry.
Gidumt’en Checkpoint Dismantled by CGL (Jan 30, 2019)
RCMP stood by as CGL destroyed buildings set up by the Gidumt’en Clan.
Freda Huson, Unist’ot’en spokesperson and founder of the Unist’ot’en healing centre, sings in ceremony as RCMP approach to arrest her during their enforcement of a Coastal GasLink court-ordered injunction against those blocking work on a gas pipeline on Monday, Feb. 10, 2020. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal
Members of the RCMP arrested seven
individuals outside the Unist’ot’en healing centre Monday during the
fifth day of enforcing a court-ordered injunction against members of the
Wet’suwe’ten and their supporters blocking access to work sites for the
Coastal GasLink pipeline.
The arrests were made at the 66-kilometre
mark of the Morice River Forest Service Road at a bridge crossing a
river along the 670-kilometre pipeline’s route.
Around 80 individuals have been arrested
at Wet’suwet’en camps along the road and at solidarity actions taking
place across the country.
Coastal GasLink was granted an injunction originally in December 2018 and the court order was renewed December 2019. Although the pipeline received approval from elected band members, hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en nation, representing five clans, have rejected the pipeline and asserted sovereignty over the nation’s traditional territory.
Amber Bracken: The difference between Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and elected chiefs is rooted in Aboriginal title, an issue that the Government of Canada continues to leave unresolved
by Amber Bracken Feb 14, 2020
This
is, left to right: Dinï ze’ Knedebeas, Warner William, Dinï ze’
Hagwilnegh, Ron Mitchell, Dinï ze’ Woos, Frank Alec, Dinï ze’ Madeek,
Jeff Brown, Dinï ze’ Gisday’wa, Fred Tom. In back is Dinï ze’ Ste ohn
tsiy, Rob Alfred. Wet’suwet’en territory near Houston, B.C. on Jan. 4,
2020. (Amber Bracken)
Amber Bracken is an award-winning photojournalist based in
Edmonton. Much of her reporting focuses on issues affecting Indigenous
people. She’s spent months, over multiple trips, covering the
interpretation of Aboriginal title rights inside Wet’suwet’en territory.
Ahead of the impending RCMP
enforcement of Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline’s temporary injunction in
late 2018, the Wet’suwet’en held an important feast, to decide what to
do next.
The bahlat, or potlatch in English,
is the seat of their ancient government. That it exists today is a
credit to the Wet’suwet’en resisters who were jailed for protecting it
during the potlatch ban that lasted from 1884 to 1951, even as their
regalia was burned in front of them.
Bahlats are open to everyone from the
nation. The proceedings that day took hours of protocol and discussion
before the hereditary chiefs announced the decision, on behalf of the
five clans—they would not leave quietly, they said. They would block
pipeline workers.
Decisions
made like this have underpinned the Wet’suwet’en’s hereditary chiefs
decade-long stand against all pipelines—in their remaining culturally
viable land. It’s only a portion of their total unceded territory
equalling roughly the size of New Jersey.
The opposing positions of the two sets of chiefs has been represented by B.C. Premier John Horgan and in the media, as a fight within the nation between the equal actors of hereditary chiefs, who defend the land, and the band chiefs, who seek escape from poverty. Premier Horgan told the CBC he doesn’t think “a handful of people can stop progress and success for people who have been waiting for a break like this for many, many years.”
Along with rescuing animals hurt and displaced by the wildfires,
the team set up food and water stations to provide sustenance to animals
in areas where their habitat was decimated.
“It’s about helping the animals after the fires,” Bechtold said. “You have animals coming back and waiting for your food.”
The chances of spotting a bumblebee have dropped by almost half across North America and by 17% in Europe from the mid-20th century to near present day, a study finds. Dmitry Drigoriev via Flickr
Shifts in temperature and rainfall are pushing bumblebees to their
ecological limits across both continents, according to the analysis
published in Science. This is driving “rapid and widespread declines” across 66 bumblebee species, the authors warn.
The impact of climate change on bumblebees is greatest in warmer
parts of the northern hemisphere, including Mexico and Spain, the
research finds.
Bumblebees have also expanded their range in some cooler regions.
However, the extent of their range expansion is far smaller than the
extent of range lost, the authors say.
This has contributed to population declines that could have “unknown
consequences for the provision of ecosystem services,” they add.
Bumblebees also face threats from habitat loss and exposure to
pesticides – meaning rapid warming could prove to be “the final straw”
for some species, another scientist tells Carbon Brief.
In
the early hours of February 6, militarized Canadian police began a
five-day long assault on the unceded and sovereign territory of the
Wet’suwet’en people in northern British Columbia to facilitate the
construction of a fracked gas pipeline that lacks that nation’s consent.
Nine days later, Wet’suwet’en land defender Dinize Ste ohn tsiy tweeted that a heavy RCMP presence on Wet’suwet’en territory continues.
In response to this violation of the rule of law (notably the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), Indigenous
peoples and allies took to the rails to demand that the RCMP and TC
Energy Coastal GasLink, the company behind the controversial
pipeline, remove themselves from Wet’suwet’en territory.
Hours after the invasion began, the Mohawks established a blockade on
the railway tracks near Belleville, Ontario. By Saturday, February 8,
the Gitxsan had established a blockade on the railway line near New
Hazelton, British Columbia.
Several other railway blockades were also soon established across the
country by Indigenous peoples and allies including near Montreal,
Quebec; Listuguj, Quebec; Headingley, Manitoba; Port Coquitlam, British
Columbia; and Toronto, Ontario.
And this morning (Saturday, February 15), Climate Justice Toronto tweeted
that the “2nd Largest Rail Classification Yard in Canada
Blockaded” adding, “Folks have blockaded US-bound CN rail tracks in
North York in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en!” That means that all trains
going west to Hamilton, London, New York and Michigan are now blocked.
By Simon Little Global News – Posted February 14, 2020 11:17 am – Updated February 15, 2020 12:43 am
Protesters supporting Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in their dispute over the Coastal GasLink pipeline vowed a “B.C. government shutdown” on Friday.
But
despite the aggressive language of a social media post organizing the
event, Friday’s demonstration was more a peaceful picket than the solid
blockade seen at the B.C. legislature on Tuesday.
Dozens of protesters, some bearing signs, others handing out pamphlets, stood outside the environment and advanced education ministries, along with ministry offices downtown and on Jutland Road.
“There’s a lot of fake news and a lot of lies, but I’m hoping we can
come together, there’s a lot of support,” said Quinn Franks, one of the
Indigenous youth at the picket lines.
“We love our country and we’re supporting the Indigenous people,” said Roxanne Derkson, one of the dozens of people who turned out in support of the action.
By Ryan Rocca Global News – Posted February 14, 2020 6:35 pm – Updated February 14, 2020 10:52 pm
Protesters are seen blocking off the intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets in downtown Toronto Friday evening. Global News
A group of demonstrators blocked off the intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets in downtown Toronto during the evening commute on Friday.
The
demonstration was held in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation, many
of whose members oppose the building of the Coastal GasLink liquefied
natural gas (LNG) pipeline in northern British Columbia, which would
pass through the nation’s unceded territory.
