Vote against Tankers
Photo: Andrew S. Wright
October 2010
On October 1, the Union of BC Municipalities called for a ban on oil tanker traffic along BC's north coast, and declared their opposition to Enbridge's proposed pipeline from the Alberta tar sands to Kitimat.
The delegates' vote at the UBCM conference in Whistler sends a resounding message to Enbridge, reflecting the growing concern of local communities that stand to be most impacted by oil spill devastation - a matter of "when", not "if" on our jagged coast.
Both motions were forwarded by the Village of Queen Charlotte. Learn about the work of Sierra Club BC's local group on Haida Gwaii to build solidarity to protect our coast against this threat.
The vote comes just a few weeks after a group of the world's leading conservation photographers returned from a RAVE - Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition in the Great Bear Rainforest. They were documenting this global ecological treasure, threatened by plans to send tankers carrying Alberta tar sands oil along the coast of the world's largest intact remaining coastal temperate rainforest.
Check out RAVE images in the National Geographic.
The Great Bear RAVE, a project of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) and Pacific Wild, is an effort to expose BC’s plans to lift the moratorium on tanker traffic along BC’s coast, which could very easily lead to a repeat of the Exxon Valdez disaster in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Crude oil from the Alberta tar sands - one of the world's greatest environmental catastrophes - is to be shipped from Kitimat through the Douglas Channel, the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, past Gil Island, where a B.C. ferry sank in March 2006, and on to Asia and the US.
To raise awareness of this imminent threat, some of the world’s most renowned nature photographers have been documenting the Great Bear Rainforest in photos, video, audio, and editorial. Those photos and videos will be available after the RAVE ends in mid-September.
Sierra Club BC is partnering with the Great Bear RAVE to spread the word about this impending threat and mobilize mass grassroots action.
Follow the RAVE blog launched by the International League of Conservation Photographers.
TAKE ACTION NOW to keep tar sands oil away from the Great Bear Rainforest.
Unless we stop them, hundreds of tankers a year will soon travel through grey whale migratory routes, through feeding grounds for humpback and orca whales, and past more than 600 salmon-spawning rivers. A single oil spill could devastate the coastal communities and First Nations that rely on tourism and fishing, as well as numerous marine and shore creatures such as eagles and other sea birds, wolves, otters, seals and many others. The Gitga'at and other First Nations strongly oppose the tanker-and-pipeline project.
A Sierra Club BC map highlights the connections between land and sea in the Great Bear Rainforest.
The coastal communities that stand to be most impacted are uniting in opposition to the threat of oil spills from tankers and the pipeline.
Learn more about Sierra Club BC's work to secure the land use agreements that protect one-third of the Great Bear Rainforest from logging and introduce lighter-touch logging regulations in the rest of the rainforest.
The Great Bear Rainforest is a global ecological treasure. It is home to 1,000-year-old western red cedars, unique coastal wolves and the rare white Kermode bear--or “Spirit” Bear. This dazzling coastal forest stretches from Bute Inlet on B.C.’s south coast to the Alaskan border to the north.
Until 2006, the Great Bear Rainforest was threatened by industrial logging. Following a prolonged international campaign, an historic land use consensus was achieved in February 2006 by the B.C. government, First Nations, the forest industry, environmental groups and other stakeholders. Sierra Club BC played a key role in achieving the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements.
