Being born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, in my youth I took forests, wildlife and clean air and water for granted. In Canada, they do a great job of insulating their citizens from reality – they keep a swath of forest up around every highway and town, leading you to believe that you live in a Nature Wonderland where bears and deer frolic and thrive. However, when I journeyed into the center of B.C. to start treeplanting at age 19, I discovered their dirty secret. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by death and destruction. I saw that behind our composting, recycling and cycling goodie-two-shoes backs, the Canadian government was giving permission to corporations (often American corporations) to lay waste to our backyard. I have stood in the middle of clearcuts, breathing in nothing but dust and decay, standing on what I can only describe as a mowed-down forest, the equivalent of a mass grave stretching for miles, and felt sick and depressed. “It brings jobs” they say; while what it really brings is massive amounts of profit that the management’s kids spend on champagne while their parents line the pockets of politicians.
One such project in the works across B.C. is the PTP, or the Pacific Trails Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline owned and operated by Apache Canada, Encana and EOG Resources, otherwise known as Enron Oil and Gas. Yes! Enron! Those motherfuckers are still being allowed to fuck the planet up!!! The people who are trying to stop them are the Unis’tot’en clan of the We’suet’en Nation, who have established an action camp on their land in direct opposition to the pipeline project. Our favorite Canadian new source, subMedia.tv, traveled up to their Action Camp to interview members of the clan and activists about the stance they are taking against the PTP. It is inspiring to see people standing against what can sometimes seem like the overwhelming power of the Evil Empire. But remember – if we stand together, we can take them down. Check out the subMedia.tv episode below, and one of their earlier reports about the PTP after the jump.
Full story after the jump…
Watch PART 1 of subMedia.tv’s PTP coverage HERE!
Text via subMedia.tv
This is the second video subMedia.tv has produced about the struggle to stop a natural gas transport project called the Pacific Trails Pipeline or PTP. The Unis’tot’en, a clan of the Wet’suet’en Nation have built a protection camp to bock PTP, in so called British Columbia in Canada. This is the third time the Unis’tot’en have called for a convergence in their territories.
This year’s camp attracted over 150 people who came from as far east as Montreal and as far south as Florida. The camp organizers opted not to tap large environmental ngo’s for material support, and instead reached out to grassroots, community based allies.
Out of the proposed pipeline projects that would cross through Unis’tot’en land, Pacific Trails is the first one slated to begin construction and poses and immediate threat. The PTP project is partnership between Apache Canada, Encana and EOG Resources formerly Enron Oil and Gas. The 463-kilometer PTP pipeline would connect a liquified natural gas port in the pacific ocean to the Spectra Energy Westcoast Pipeline in North East BC, with the aim of transporting gas extracted through fracking to overseas markets. The much talked about Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline would transport tar sands oil from Fort McMurray, an extraction project that is devastating the nature and indigenous communities in the Athabasca region of Northern Alberta. The Enbridge pipeline would be built side by side to the PTP.
These dirty energy schemes not only threaten nature and indigenous communities in the north. They also have global implications. If decisive action is not taken to stop the flows of oil and gas, the effects of global climate change could be catastrophic for people, plants and animals the world over. This is why Indigenous people and their allies traveled from far away to this camp.
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