Dear PM Trudeau, Albertans & all TMX Pipeline supporters..

I just spent more energy & time responding to another Cdn. who scornfully insisTs Canada NEEDS the TMX Expansion that was approved last week by Justin Trudeau (our resident Tot-in-Chief) -- to which I had this to say:  From a free-thinking fellow Canadian..

[Person's name withheld] TROUBLE IS, yours is hardly a 'different perspective' but rather the typical Cdn norm furthered by Govts since first contact - & only 300 or so yrs later we're in a #ClimateEmergency, thanks mostly to our unsustainable reap-without-sowing natural resource 'mgmt.' practices still going strong (despite warnings from global Climate summits since 1992, where all participating nations agreed to slow their rising GHGs/pollution & protect old-growth forests ++)  Canada has talked good intentions while continuing to allow destructive logging/ mining/ waste-mgmt practices - eg. Cutting down our precious ancient forests (best carbon captors - til felling them emits massive amts of CO2), approving massive dams like Site C & & allowing mining exploration in sacred Tsilhqotin First Nation/ tourist ranch country like Taseko's diabolical (twice Feds-rejected) 'Prosperity' open-pit disaster.. SHAME on #BCNDP!

Look up Genus Capital (Vcr.) with their successful fossil-free funds & fact-filled literature on climate change:  a forward-thinking corp that divests fossil fuels while answering the uRgenT call for changes to our UNSUSTAINABLE STATUS QUO:  if a financial institution can do it, why can't we?

BECAUSE OUR 'DEMOCRATIC' GOVTS MAKE ALL DECISIONS, WITHOUT RESPECTING THEIR SWORN OATHS TO BE GUIDED BY THEIR CONSTITUENTS & PROTECT THEIR (our) BEST INTERESTS!?

Bottom line = we MUST rein in our GHG emissions & protect our dying biodiversity from extinction --ie. Paris Agreement goals-- & spending billion$ on building a new pipeline for expanding polluting tar sands & shipping all that dirty bitumen via BC to the most polluting country on Earth just DOESN'T DO IT!!

Sorry Albertans, but aren't your kids' futures worth more than that brand-new gas-guzzling truck you were counting on? Come ON! Upgrading doesn't NECESSARILY mean austerity/ powerlessness --think Geothermal energy & snap outa that poor-me pouting to join Canada in finding solutions that don't subsidize already-wealthy Oil&Gas co's that have HAD their heyday & turned N. Alberta into a fire-ravaged toxic wasteland in the process..

We need to be sustainable.. Quit deforestation & unnecessary pollution.. to be proper stewards of the abundant green world we (once) knew & loved.. to reconcile with our First Nations natives in the way that they wish:  acknowledge all the wrongs conmitted - & adopted - by our Govts since Confederation & give them back sovereignty over their unceded territories for them to manage (as they did, sustainably & keeping abundant growing populations of diverse wild species, for millenia..)  Then we ask them - nicely? - if they'll lead us to sustainability, THEIR WAY - as we should have from the start:  isn't THIS the way to carry out due Reconciliation with our First Nations?

Canada's Constitution has a prominent section outlining our responsibilities of conservation & stewardship of all our native fauna/flora -- with which Govts ought to be familiar, as reminders that humans are not the only animals sharing planet Earth:  ie. aLL living beings should be respected & allowed to roam freely in their natural habitat without human interference..

Remember that next time you consider approving another destructive, smelly, waste-heavy human industrial endeavor whose main purpose (besides gutting all the rich natural resources of an area without regard for existing ecosystems) is to enrich the personal accounts of its officials while paying barely-liveable wages to its workers:  hardly acceptable for a polluting project costing billions in a 'Climate Emergency'..?

& don't insult Cdns' intelligence by promising to use the profits therefrom (!!?!) to fund fresh new green initiatives:  we've heard your promises before, & we are noT convinced!  (At least I hope we are smarter than lemmings)

PS. #GoVegan - I did, & it's easy if you love animals as I do..

BREAKING: TRUDEAU JUST APPROVED RUINOUS TMX EXPANSION!!?

[Breaking News June 18th 2019 from Protect the Inlet]

Dear Sarah, Canada just approved the Trans Mountain pipeline and tanker project - so it's time to raise our voices. We're meeting at the corner of Georgia and Hamilton in downtown Vancouver where we will march to show Ottawa that no matter who approves this pipeline and tanker project - it will never be built.  TIME: 5:30 PM Pacific | LOCATION: 700 Hamilton at Georgia, outside CBC Vancouver building Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/453965592084200 This is a Climate Emergency - it's time to act like it. We're organizing for a summer of resistance, check out ways you can join in: https://www.stoptransmountainpipeline.org/ Front Line Defence Door Knocking Phone Banking Community Power Solutions This Saturday, June 22, Protect the Inlet and George will be in Victoria for a 22 kilometre walk where local activists have been building a Tiny House to support the Secwepemc Tiny House Warriors, who are preparing for land defence in the Interior of British Columbia. 7 km of Saturday’s march will occupy the highway, before delivering a completed Tiny House to Island View Beach. To join them, find all the info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/331462934205597/ If you can, it's time to build up our resources, please donate here: https://protecttheinlet.ca/asp-products/donations/ There's a famous saying, "Don't mourn, organize." Take a little bit of time to mourn, then let's work together to beat the Climate Emergency and stop this destructive dirty pipeline. Have faith in yourself and each other -- we can do it together.  Yours in solidarity and love, Sarah, Will, Tegan, Howie and the PTI team

Letter 2 Govt: REJECT TMX PIPELINE EXPANSION!

[via letter-writing tool @ DavidSuzuki.org ] --but majorly customized, i.e. re-written by me!

[PS. TRUDEAU:  YOU ARE FIRED!]

Dear PM Trudeau & Cabinet

URGENT:   DECISION ON TRANS MOUNTAIN (TMX) PIPELINE EXPANSION

As an informed Canadian citizen & resident of Vancouver BC, I feel it’s my duty to communicate my deep concerns to Government officials over this critical life-or-death decision.  I urge you to re-consider the far-reaching & irreversible consequences of approving this TMX Expansion, & to use your position as a Government official to reject this onerous project.

The broadest-ranging effects of the TMX Pipeline Expansion relate directly to its status as a fossil-fuel mega-project that entails constructing the world's largest open-pit tar sand mine, which would wipe out 292 square kilometers of Alberta’s forests & wetlands.  Extracting & refining tar sand oil - the world’s dirtiest fuel – has already turned vast swathes of northern Alberta into a wasteland of cleared forests [critical wildlife habitat], poisoned water [eg. heavy metals from tailings] & polluted air [refineries emit increasing levels of GHGs].

Approving TMX would make a mockery of Canada’s commitment to climate action..

The world has already witnessed more than 2 decades of discussion about the reality of a warming planet, starting with the UNFCC’s 1992 Earth Summit where nearly all the world’s nations agreed on a need to stabilize GHG (CO2) concentrations:  http://unfccc.int/meetings/copenhagen_dec_2009/meeting/6295.php

17 years later in 2009, more than 100 world leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen committed to limiting global warming no more than 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures - beyond which the UNFCC & other experts predict irreversible & potentially catastrophic climate change impacting coastal regions, food production, water supplies & more. Since global warming is already underway (average global temperature has risen 0.85°C since pre-industrial levels) experts believe we can’t afford a temperature increase of more than 1.2°C above today’s level. The European Commission on Climate Action states, “To stay within this ceiling, the scientific evidence shows that the world must stop the growth in global GHG emissions by 2020 at the latest, reduce them by at least half of 1990 levels by the middle of this century & continue cutting them thereafter.”

2020 is next year.  And Canada’s carbon tax, “Climate Action” & other weak initiatives have failed to slow our steep rise of CO2/GHG levels.  If ever there were a time Govt leaders had to step up & take action to protect our precious natural resources & transition to green energy policies, IT IS NOW.  As Genus Capital’s sheet reads, Canada’s economy will only benefit by moving away from fossil fuels.  Opposition to TMX is backed by science.  Green energy leads oil & gas in both number of employed & growth rate for jobs in Canada. This pipeline locks us into decades more eco-destruction & tarsands pollution, which the global scientific community is desperately trying to tell us we cannot afford if we hope to have a habitable planet in the near future..

This is not a distant threat, it is here & now.. We are living unsustainably. Easy access to cheap, abundant oil has created a high standard of living for many cultures and societies. At the same time, the extraction, refining, distribution & use of this oil – as energy & in products – is increasingly undermining many of our planet’s life forms & the fragile balance of conditions that support climate stability & human prosperity. These effects are occurring on local, regional & global scales.  The Arctic & Greenland icecaps are melting at an increasing rate of speed.  Dead fish are washing ashore in Nova Scotia, & Orcas are struggling to survive in an increasingly industry-heavy Vancouver harbour.  It is imperative that we fight climate change & the ways in which climate change is exacerbated.  Supporting the financial interests of banks & oil barons is not sustainable, & the building of additional capacity to transport oil is simply criminal.  We need to stop producing and exporting more fossil fuels.  Period.  Building more pipelines only increases production of fossil fuels:  simple math/logic.

The public interest in slowing down global warming & preventing more environmental pollution/spills must take precedence over the selfish financial interests of tar sands investors & the political interests of politicians who pander to status-quo industries desperately clinging to yesterday’s consumer-driven economics without compromise.  It is up to YOU, dear leaders, to make up for Canada’s lost time spent ignoring/ suppressing scientific imperatives.. & ACT on behalf of all Canadians to bring about a sustainable future..

We residents of BC are in panic mode over this impending TMX approval, for many reasons.  Expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline will lock in decades of increased tanker traffic & climate-destabilizing carbon emissions. It will also put the incredible ecosystems of Vancouver Harbour, the Fraser River estuary & the Salish Sea at risk from a catastrophic bitumen spill & shipping increases.  The existing & expanded proposal would deliver 890,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day to Vancouver. Oil storage capacity at Burnaby would triple, adding 14 new tanks to store another 3,900,000 barrels. The pipeline would cross more than 500 streams in the Fraser River watershed. Tanker visits would increase by 574% above 2010 levels to more than 400 oil-laden trips through Burrard Inlet, the Fraser estuary, the Gulf Islands, Haro Strait & Juan de Fuca Strait, every year.  The integrity of our waters would be forever destroyed, for questionable economics that have not even been properly analyzed or disseminated..

This is a frightening prospect that we have a responsibility to oppose.

The threat from oil tankers to Southern Resident killer whales, a listed Species At Risk, is insupportable.  Importantly, even if the project goes completely according to plan, with no oil spills & no ship strikes, the increased noise alone from more than 800 tanker transits significantly increases their risk of extinction. When cumulative effects are considered, these whales face more than 50% chance of functional extinction within the next century.  If you approve the TMX expansion anyway, the catastrophic outcome will be on your heads, to explain to your children & grandchildren.

Please read Raincoast’s Executive Summary reporting the risks posed to the Fraser River’s productive salmon populations:

https://www.raincoast.org/reports/salmon-oil-pipeline/

Being emotionally overwhelmed by the number of threats currently endangering BC's environment & the wildlife I care about, I include this link to details on exactly how the TMX Expansion would affect BC, by the unflinchingly hard-working Raincoast Conservation group:

https://www.raincoast.org/trans-mountain-pipeline/

Canada’s recent policy changes aimed at reducing carbon emissions will be undermined by the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Building major infrastructure for oil and gas exportation will have catastrophic implications for decades to come. 

Please take every reasonable action to reject the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Sincerely,

Sarah (Saz) Chesterman
Vancouver, BC