The task @ hand...

i.e. WHAT WE GOTTA DO (me 'n' you...) YA YOU TOO!
(from my CaRe2):
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/3511663

(Illustration by me, Saz C)

Saving LiVES, 1 PETiTiON @ a Time...

Petitions are a viable way of influencing decision-making powers through 'strength in numbers', as popular sites like CARE2 prove.  Here are a couple of my latest projects - with links for you to access - on CARE2.com:


STOP THE ENBRIDGE TAR SANDS PIPELINE IN CANADA 
(http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/787/589/822/)

# 31,414    Nov 11, Ms. Sarah Chesterman, BC
Today @ Broadway & Cambie a sweet young guy with pen & clipboard was approaching people, offering a petition to sign - & mostly being ignored. Hearing him say "pipeline" stopped me, & i didn't have to wait for the expected "Enbridge" to impatiently sign my name - with a pang of shame @ being 1st on the page... PEOPLE: WAKE UP - & APPRECIATE EACH CHANCE YOU GET TO VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION! (Doesn't our PM's approval of this pipeline PROVE this protest's worth?) How about proving YOUR worth as a citizen of BC - i.e. the province that's counting on YOU to protect its precious coast... [PLEASE: don't let BC down, as the old-school FOOLs reporting our supposed "News" have clearly done -- blaming them for your own ignorance won't reverse the oil spills which WILL --NOT "COULD" or "MIGHT"-- result from its approval…]  ENBRIDGE PIPELINE = DEATH OF BC'S COAST.

DECADE TO SAVE TREES & SAVE THE WORLD(http://www.thepetitionsite.com/24/decade-to-save-trees-save-the-world/)

# 174   May 25, Sarah Chesterman, Canada
The bottom line is, do we want to change our ways to be Earth-aware/ Nature-friendly... OR do we want to continue with same-old (i.e. feeding corporate profits while destroying what makes Earth liveable/ sustainable)??  If you aren't being responsible and/or vigilant RE. environmental quality & our state of health on Earth, then you're part of the problem:  i.e. you're assisting - by your actions/inaction, purchases etc. - the continued rape of Mother Nature.  Which is UNACCEPTABLE - as well as stupid, since nature iS THE provider/supplier/sustainer of life on Earth...
Instead of killing animals, we could learn from them:  NOT as experimental lab subjects (from which we learn nothing but our willingness to be duped by rapacious pharmaceutical co's) but as sustainable users of Earth's resources & integral elements of their wild ecosystems - habitats which humans have gradually but persistently diminished by deforestation, development etc.  Our natural tendency toward improvement would have led to global sustainability in action, not just in theory, if it weren't for humans' less admirable tendencies (selfishness, short-sightedness & greed) perpetuated by over-emphasis on material realities.  When we open our hearts & minds to our spiritual link with the universe, a world of possibilities is freed up - along with practical solutions.  With such freedom, fortified by success, comes the desire to reach out to others - as you were reached, to help become the enlightened vegan you are today?   
[For me,  being vegetarian came naturally.  After high school graduation, i took the opportunity to go abroad to be an 'au pair' (nanny).  Close to my departure date, i was told my 'family' was strictly vegetarian and 'Would i be OK with that?'   I was in fact super OK with it, since i'd always loved animals and hated the thought of eating 'my friends'.  That was before i knew anything about the cruelty of dairy production, or what happens on fur farms, or the harm to Earth's environment caused by the beef industry... Like most people, my knowledge of the world - & our part in it - has expanded gradually over time and is an ongoing process, rather than some 'all-or-nothing' miracle of osmosis.  Each new piece added to the puzzle has led to the unflinching finding-out of many more, along with the resolve to share with others what i've learned...]


UPDATE CANADA'S ANIMAL CRUELTY LAWS (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/next_action.html?pId=965702026)

Sarah Chesterman, Canada
Legislation simply sets in writing our society's rules of personal conduct & expectations of others', based on our values... And Canada's laws do not accurately or adequately reflect Canadians' conduct, expectations or values vis-a-vis non-human species - having changed dramatically due to gains in knowledge/ understanding thereof.  Thus our government's failure to incorporate these changes into new, updated laws is glaringly remiss, if not tantamount to criminal negligence in allowing undesirable conduct & disrespect for our fundamental values to go unnoticed/unpunished.  Most Canadians care deeply about this issue, and would be shocked at the amount of animal cruelty that goes on unchecked behind closed doors in their own country.  Canada's lack of transparency & its outdated animal-welfare laws/ practices are shameful, and hold us back from necessary progress toward sustainability & an improved harm-free (i.e. stress-free) outlook...
Amending laws to properly align with expectations & future aspirations, updated with modern scientific knowledge/research, MUST include respectful treatment of Earth's environment, nature and all living beings if we are to continue thriving...


CDN. PEOPLE ASKING U.S. TO BOYCOTT OUR FISH (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/canadian-people-asking-us-to-boycott-our-fish/)
 
# 6   13:38, Apr 03, Sarah Chesterman, Canada
To be clear: i don't WANT to support cutting off Canadians' livelihoods. But i CAN'T stand by & do nothing as long as this disgrace to the human race keeps taking place in my country - against Canadian, European & global demands to STOP this sickening slaughter of thousands of baby seals each year. WHY, when such sadistic cruelty against animals is no longer necessary for survival, let alone acceptable by any standards of conduct, is MY government not taking a leadership role as a 'developed' nation & SHUTTING DOWN "Canada's shame"? Its failure to do so forces me to ask that you boycott the sealers' main income source: Canadian.seafood. Thank you very much.


.

iT's MY pLaneT Too!

... so OF COURSE i care about global warming - & any oTHeR human activity contributing to its abuse! As i used to say when i was little, 'They're wrecking my fun!'

Here's my response to Douglas Todd's Vancouver Sun article "Who Cares Less About Global Warming?" at this link: http://goo.gl/jnA2

Forget conspiracy theories, fears, 'hoaxes' ET AL + pare down to the facts: Global warming or not, human activity has done needless damage to our planet Earth - mostly by rampant consumerism and resulting greed (eg. unethical corporations/humans doing whatever it takes to meet those demands, for selfish gains). Spilling gallons of oil into oceans; clearcutting whole chunks of forest without considering the powerfully regenerative, restorative benefits of trees and replanting accordingly; appropriating whole mountaintops in unsuspecting third-world regions to decimate all vegetation and wildlife for mlies around; further destabling those lands by grinding out endless chunks of rock for tiny bits of gold then chucking the resulting poisonous waste directly into freshwater systems (thus killing whole fish habitats and all other other life forms along the way)... Those are just a few of the countless wake-up calls to which people are responding with more than mere desire to restore nature's balance and establish less harmful ways of doing things.

Some European countries have already implemented changes to become 100% sustainable. Canada needs to step up and protect its Arctic from further development which – conspiracy theorists or not – WILL affect its complex ecosystems, as it has done to so many lush, thriving wilderness regions around the world which have been exploited by humans (many Canadian). That's fact - not theory - based on actual consequences of dangerous, risky activities... such as offshore oil drilling! (Does anyone around here read, or travel, or have a clue what's going on in the world?? Yikes..)

Scientists DO agree that Arctic polar ice (which influences and helps regulate global weather systems) is melting more quickly than expected/predicted, and that even boat travel thru newly-melted Arctic waters - which has picked up as a result - affects the area's ecological quality. People who care want to do something about it, starting with implementing - eg. legislating - positive changes in how we operate vis-a-vis how we treat our environment. Is that so wrong? Only to those who stand to make obscene amounts of $$ gauging out Earth's surface (i.e. those who probably already have)...

Wildlife (ya, those polar bears) are our best friends AND educators when it comes to our surroundings.  The less we interfere with their habitats and instincts (eg. by 'culling', mass slaughter and other gross indecencies inflicted on them - to our own detriment) the better their ability to inform us of atmospheric/ environmental/ terrestrial changes, impending disasters etc.

Poisoning our lands and waters, killling off other life forms to satisfy our immediate 'needs' (= greeds), dumping mine waste down rivers into once-pristine nature parks, ETC... the iDiOCY of these destructive human activities is obvious. AWARENESS of its rampancy in industry is what's making people speak out and take action, because governments are not.  'Ordinary' people wanting to help:  THIS is the humanity that fills me with hope and inspires me to act.  Those who simply knock down others or procrastinate with mindless "Lord and Saviour" phrases repeated randomly throughout bible-quoting irrelevancies have no (actual, apparent or intended) benefit or healing/selfless purpose.

Meanwhile, back on Earth - in the here and now, REALIZING THE DAMAGING CONSEQUENCES OF OUR ACTIONS - WANTING TO RIGHT THOSE WRONGS FOR EVERYONE'S BENEFIT is an obviously worthy mission.  Anyone who wants to argue with its basic moral principles, let alone its scientific basis, is surely out of touch with what matters - i.e. life itself...

YESS! GoV'T said 'NO' to Prosperity Mine!

Course, i was (and am) over-the-moon @ the Federal announcement (government’s announcement) that Taseko Mines Ltd. will NOT be allowed to go ahead with its proposed 'Prosperity Mine' - a project which i and many others, including the Council of Canadians, David Suzuki Foundation and Friends of Nemaiah Valley, had vehemently opposed due to the environmental destruction it would cause.

Prosperity Mine would have decimated old-growth forests, wildlife habitat (of grizzly bears, cougars, wolves - even the last of North America's wild horses) as well as the sustainable livelihoods of local First Nations people, guest ranchers etc.  Aside from the fact that Nemaiah Valley - a remote wilderness in BC's Chilcotins - is one of my fave places in the world...

Here's the Nemaiah Valley i know and love:

If the Federal government HAD approved the mine, it would have been the first time they had acted against the recommendations of its Environmental Review panel (CEAA) - which formally denounced the Prosperity proposal for its many adverse environmental effects that would be "irreversible, longterm and impossible to mitigate". So why the announcements - within a day or 2 - of Campbell's resignation as BC's premier, along with Jim Prentice stepping down as Minister of the Environment?  If these events ARE related it's no doubt because the BC Liberals, led by Gordon Campbell, had already given Prosperity Mine their provincial seal of approval back in 2008 - which flew in the face of Campbell's pre-Olympics Action Plan 2007 promise to support tourism, particularly small-business entrepreneurs, in every way possible.

Federal approval of this heinous project would also have insulted the First Nations people (Tsilhqot’in) who have lived in this region and managed its wilderness as responsible stewards for centuries:  Despite Premier Campbell's promise to prioritize better relations with BC's native people  in all future land matters, the Tsilhqot'in  were not properly consulted on this matter.  Never mind the fact that trout-rich Fish Lake (the location of the proposed gold/copper mine, which would have had to be drained to make way for a mine-waste tailings pond, right at a main watershed to the Fraser River) is situated in an area literally surrounded by protected areas, ecological zones, provincial parks and wildlife habitats (see Google map of Cariboo-Chilcotin). Zoom out of Fish Lake on a map and you can see it's flanked by Big Creek Provincial Park, Nunsti Provincial Park, Tatlayoko Protected Area, Ts'ylos Provincial Park - behind which lies Spruce Lake Protected Area and, beyond that, Churn Creek Protected Area.

As is obvious looking on a map, the Cariboo-Chilcotin is not called BC's 'last frontier' for nothing: just up to the north of Nemaiah Valley and Big Creek Provincial Park you can see the devastating results of BC's forestry industry, with vast treeless chunks or patches testifying decades of clearcutting:  the price paid by BC's wilderness.

If Taseko Mines Ltd. (owned by Hunter Dickinson, a company well-known in places like Tibet for its ruthless mining activities) plans to redouble its efforts to make Prosperity Mine a reality, resistance by those who recognize the priceless value of BC's wilderness territories will be - justifiably - even fiercer than ever, gold/copper open-pit mining being one of the most environmentally destructive human activities on the planet...

Here are some further useful links on the topic:

http://www.fonv.ca/

http://www.miningwatch.ca/
.