Opposition to the expansion of oil giant Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline reached a fever pitch Sunday as thousands of people jammed Commercial Drive to rally for Earth Day.

The public gathering is the first of its kind since the April 12 announcement that the Texas-based company will seek to more than double the amount of crude oil that flows from Alberta to Burnaby, to 850,000 barrels a day from the present 300,000.

The increase, spurred by higher than expected demand from Asian markets, would see tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet jump to nearly 365 tankers per year, up from about 70.

For many people at the Commercial Drive rally, which culminated in a daylong festival at Grandview Park, the heightened risk of an oil spill and an increase in human-caused climate change is their chief opposition to the Kinder Morgan proposal.

“This is absolutely the wrong decision for B.C. I don’t want us to become part of the climate problem,” said Robyn Monk of Vancouver, who grew up on the B.C. coast.

“This is my home, I don’t want to see it destroyed.”

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has said he is firmly against the proposed expansion. On Sunday, he told the crowd Vancouver’s mandate to become the world’s greenest city does not fit with a “massive expansion” of oil exports in Vancouver.

Park Board chair Niki Sharma confirmed she will make a motion at the board’s April 30 meeting to formally oppose the Kinder Morgan project; community members are invited to speak to the issue.

“This will be the first opportunity for public comment,” she said.

Those at Grandview Park cited the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, as well as recent leaks in the Trans Mountain pipeline in Burnaby and Abbotsford, as reasons to oppose the pipeline expansion.

Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, whose traditional territory surrounds the Burrard Inlet, said the first nation is opposed to more tankers in the region’s waterways.

“As a child I played in that water, I swam in that water. I grew to have a connection to that water and I think everyone deserves that opportunity,” he said.

The rally was organized by Youth for Climate Justice Now, made up of students from the Vancouver region. One of the volunteers, Windermere Secondary Grade 11 student Andrea Novakovic, said she hopes such events will inform and inspire young people.

“A lot of students don’t know what’s going on. We need more events like this that make them feel like they have a voice,” she said.

“It’s important for us to take action now so we don’t regret it later.”

Kinder Morgan has pledged 18 to 24 months for public consultation on the pipeline expansion. The application would also have to be reviewed by the National Energy Board, which has jurisdiction over energy projects.

Kinder Morgan already owns a right-of-way for its pipeline and energy matters fall under the jurisdiction of federal, not municipal, agencies, meaning any local opposition to the project will be an uphill battle.

Still, that won’t shake the resolve of environmentalists.

“People are hungry for any opportunity to come together and express their opposition to projects like these,” said Ben West of the Wilderness Committee.

If approved, the project could be up and running by 2017.