Happy Fossil Fools Day!
Thanks to everyone who checked out TofinoOilSpill.com! Imagine if this had not been a prank—how would you feel if you heard there was an major oil spill near Tofino—for real? We staged the mock oil spill in Tofino to show the ridiculous reality the fossil fools are pushing.
National day of action
Fossil Fools Day is a national day of action coordinated by the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in their latest report (heavy reading), has acknowledged that avoiding the worst impacts of climate change means leaving 80% of known fossil fuels in the ground. Yet the fossil fuel industry has plans to keep growing five times larger than the planet can handle.
Tofino could be on the frontline of a major oil spill. It is the people living and working here—the whale watchers, surfers, kayakers, and fishermen—who would be most heavily impacted. If experience is any guide, they will also be the ones left to clean up the oil and the dead and dying marine life, while various levels of government and bureaucracies bicker about who is responsible for paying for the cleanup. Here in Clayoquot Sound in 1988 the Nestucca oil spill (only 5,500 barrels) killed 56,000 seabirds and took locals months to clean up, with very little assistance from governments other than the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations.
Building a movement
It’s time for Canadians of all walks of life to stand together to demand that our governments fulfill their role of protecting the environment and citizens by preventing the construction of pipelines, and banning tankers from BC coastal waters.
The people of BC do not want the risk of an oil spill on our coast. We do not want oil tankers running through BC waters, nor do we want to put the marine environment or coastal economies at risk. The time to get active is now—we need to rally together to ensure that the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan pipelines are never built, and oil tankers are banned from the BC coast forever.
Clayoquot Action will continue to work to prevent the Fossil Fools’ pipe dreams from becoming our nightmares. Please sign up below and you’ll be kept posted on upcoming events and actions to help keep the coast oil-free!
Dan Lewis is a founding director of Clayoquot Action.
