Protect the Salish Sea rally begins today to coincide with NYC climate march
Seattle Examiner
Sunday kicks off a historic week in New York City for climate action beginning with the People’s Climate March tomorrow and including the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday attended by President Barack Obama, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and leaders from 125 global governments.
Many countries are holding events in solidarity with the historic People’s Climate March to bring attention to the ever-increasing dangers of climate change and demanding that leaders enact bold legislation to combat the biggest long-term challenge currently faced by the world.
In accordance, an international rally will be held today in Blaine, Washington at 1:00 p.m. at the Peace Arch to protect the Salish Sea, which was coined in 2009.
The rally is called “Climate Change Knows no Borders: Defense of the Salish Sea is Without Boundaries”. It will be attended by Canadians, Americans, First Nations members, and Native Americans.
The following information was provided by the organizers’ press release:
The event is designed to highlight both the profound fossil fuel threats to the region on both sides of the border--coal export, explosive Bakken shale oil trains, and the proposed Kinder-Morgan Trans-Mountain tar sands pipeline, for example--to call for cross-border action by citizens and politicians to defend the Salish Sea from these threats, and to celebrate and strengthen the alliances that have emerged in response to them, including the Nawt-sa-Maat Alliance, a powerful coalition of First Nations, Native American tribes, environmentalists, religious and spiritual groups, and concerned citizens of all kinds. Sundance Chief Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation will speak, as well as Master Carver Jewell James of the Lummi Nation, Alexandra Woodsworth of the Georgia Strait Alliance, Sarra Tekola of UW Divest, and Lynn Fitz-Hugh of 350 Seattle.
The occasion will also be used by the organizing groups to launch the Pledge to Save the Salish Sea, a collaborative campaign aimed at gathering cross-border support that will call on citizens to act at critical moments to stop key projects and push for climate leadership in the region, organize cross-border delegations to decision-makers and create more events like this one.
Participants will engage in a ceremony of commitment to protect the Salish Sea by joining hands across the border.
"We stand as one, and together we will protect and restore the sacredness of the Salish Sea," says Sundance Chief Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. "Together, we are stronger than those who wish to use our home and waters as a mere highway for dirty oil and coal -- and together, we will stop them."
Sarra Tekola from UW Divest said in her speech that "As a young black woman and a second generation immigrant- fighting climate change isn’t a choice, it is an obligation and a duty to protect not only my rights but my communities and the generations after me."
Adds Lynn Fitz-Hugh of 350 Seattle, "We are coming together on this border to tell our political leaders and the members of the UN that the time for posturing and endless talking is over. The time for action is now...and if they won't lead, we will."
The 4 Days of Action will culminate in the signing of the International Treaty to Protect the Sacredness of the Salish Sea at the Tsleil Waututh Nation on Monday, 9/22.
For additional information contact Jared Howe, 206-250-2568
Photo: Kristin Henry
