Because if we don’t take care of our planet, God doesn’t have a spare one in his/her back pocket!
So even though Stephen Harper told the press last week in that very reassuring fashion of his that G8/G20 leaders were going to talk about the environment during the economic G8/G20 Summits this week …well, I’m going to leave it up to you whether or not you believe him/them.
This after our UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon put some heat on world leaders so let’s not go so far as to believe that Stevie thought up the idea on his own out of the goodness of his own tar-sands dripping heart.
If you feel you need to keep our politicians to their word regarding the environment, then the Toronto Community Mobilization Network has declared Wednesday June 23, 2010 as Environmental and Climate Justice Day. If you need a good reason to help protect the environment, I can give you a very personal one: Don’t Melt My Homeland
But also check here and see what moves your own heart to beat in time with Mother Earth.
On Wednesday June 23, 2010, “environmental justice organizers will be guiding a tour through Toronto to expose institutions most responsible for the environmental and social impacts of Canada’s extractive industries both at home and abroad.
Canada is home to 75% of the world’s mining and exploration companies, making it a global leader in this industry. Canada’s place within the G8 nations is largely due to the exploitation of Indigenous peoples, their lands and rural poor for mining, tar sands and oil/gas exploitation.”
Toxic Tour of Toronto:
11:00 am @ Alexandra Park (Dundas Avenue and Bathurst Street)
Email: [email protected]
The toxic tour will focus on four themes:
1: The extractive industry is violating human rights and the rights of mother earth. The federal government supports these companies even as human rights workers are killed, local peoples poisoned, and entire communities displaced. From the tar sands in northern Alberta to gold mines in Papua New Guinea to copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Canadian companies are exploiting indigenous and poor communities alike, violating their right to self-determination, poisoning their lands, manipulating any leadership that they can access, and often supporting brutal military and security operations.
2: The extractive industry is exacerbating the climate crisis. The tar sands gigaproject is the most destructive industrial project on earth and will be the leading contributor to climate change in Canada, making it impossible for our country to meet its international climate commitments. The climate crisis has been caused by the industrialization of developed countries like Canada, while disproportionately affecting indigenous peoples and the global south who are faced with sea-level rise, drought, permafrost melt, desertification, melting glaciers, and increased extreme weather events. These and other problems brought on by the climate crisis have destroyed the livelihoods of millions who are dying and being displaced from their homes.
3: The education system is taken over by corporate interests. The University of Toronto, Canada´s largest academic institution, is taken over by corporations, many of which are linked to the extractive industry. This corporate influence stifles open, honest, and critical debate in our institutions of higher learning and demonstrates how a wealthy few can dominate and shape the way people think. As an academic institution that strives to create the ‘leaders of tomorrow,’ we must challenge the notion that corporate greed and exploitation has any place in our education system.
4: The Canadian economy is dependent on exploiting marginalized peoples and the environment. Harper would not be at the G8 if it wasn’t for exploiting the resources and people of countries that the G8 is purposely shutting out of discussions. Solutions, however, are there-but the Harper government refuses to give people the ability to determine the future of their own lives and livelihoods.
**
Evening Event: Peoples Assembly on Climate Justice – Moving Forward From Cochabamba
Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 7pm
Ryerson Student Campus Centre (SCC115), 55 Gould Street, Toront
“With the success of the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia in April 2010, social movements from all over the world have begun to cross-pollinate their efforts to forge an urgent movement for Climate Justice that demands governments respect and protect the rights of climate-impacted communities and our planet, Mother Earth”
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