It was pretty amazing last week to see hundreds of people in Vancouver taking part in a global event focused on climate change and transportation alternatives. We were one of thousands of events in over 160 countries!

The Moving Planet bike ride in Vancouver started with a forum on transportation policy organized in partnership with our friends from Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST). The talk highlighted a report we co-published with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) as part of their Climate Justice project, entitled 'Transportation Transformation', which seeks to provide a 'road map' to zero emissions transportation using BC as a case study.

Our bike ride ended at Second Beach in Stanley Park. Our intent was to show the links between the supply and demand for tar sands oil.

A poll taken last year found that 80 per cent of British Columbians support a ban on oil tanker traffic. To eliminate the threat of an oil spill off our coast we need to remove the demand for oil as transportation fuel. Of course this is no small task but that is the challenge that lays before us if we are to face the climate crisis head on.

We must limit both the supply and the demand for oil if we are to succeed, and Canada's tar sands are one of the biggest remaining reserves of oil left on planet earth. This means we have a special responsibility here in BC. Proposed and expanded pipelines in BC are the primary way oil could reach international markets.

Consultations are about to begin regarding the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal. Please consider signing up to speak at the public consultations regarding this atrocious pipeline proposal. The deadline to get on the speakers' list is Thursday, Oct. 6 - so sign up now!

The other pipeline and oil tanker threat in BC is the existing Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to the Vancouver Harbour via the terminal in Burnaby. Last Friday at the Union of BC Municipalities, a resolution was passed calling on the National Energy Board to consult with First Nations and local governments before allowing any expansion of oil exports through the Burrard Inlet. This was a big step in the right direction but there is still a lot of work to do on this campaign.

Finally, just yesterday, we got news that Trans Mountain and two local companies have pleaded guilty for the 2007 oil spill in Burnaby - a small measure of justice. The companies will pay a small fine.

Unfortunately, the guilty plea will do nothing to slow down their efforts to increase the amount of crude oil passing under Burnaby en route to tankers in Burrard Inlet. Only people power, our combined grassroots efforts, can slow down this dangerous flow of climate change causing oil.

If you would like to get involved in this growing movement, give me a shout.

Together we can turn this ship around.

Ben West | Healthy Communities Campaigner
Wilderness Committee