People from across the spectrum are convinced that the Kinder Morgan pipelines expansion must be stopped. Seniors, students, advocates, academics, religious folks, business people, atheists, members of First Nations, working citizens.. all recognize that the corporate oil giant from Texas shouldn’t have a say in Canadian affairs. Moreover, the planet’s atmosphere cannot bear another pipeline.
Why is it important to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion?
We see at least three tangible reasons:
- The pipeline expansion is set to significantly increase tanker traffic in the Salish Sea. This will elevate the risk of dirty beaches and polluted oceans and fisheries here in Vancouver. A large oil spill happened in 1973 and will more likely take place again with this proposed expansion.
- This project will lead to an additional 590.000 barrels of bitumen oil shipped daily from the Burrard Inlet. As scientists continue to warn us, this is nothing short of a carbon bomb for the planet. If Canada wants to stick to the Paris Agreement, and recover its reputation for being an ecologically-responsible country, those fossil fuels have to stay where they are — in the ground.
- The expansion of the tar sands is going to continue to displace vulnerable communities in Fort Chip, the Athabasca region in Alberta, and in the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation here in the Burrard Inlet. But the voiceless and downtrodden have priority in the kingdom of heaven. Listening to the plight of first occupants of these lands is a concrete way to honor God the Creator and love our neighbor.
This march will be a monumental event led by 100’s of organizations and embraced by 1000’s of citizens from the Greater Vancouver area. Once again, we will all be sending a clear message to the powers-that-be that the world belongs to God and to God alone.
It’s time to leave behind outmoded illusions.
More than ever, our ecological crisis is showing how the 19th century slogan “we are masters of our souls and captains of our fates” is old-school and problematic. The time is ripe to free ourselves from the human-centered, nature-destroying attitudes of the Enlightenment, and to rediscover, instead, forgotten horizons. The path of self-transcendence now lays ahead of us, urging us to embrace relationships of sisterhood and brotherhood with every person and every living being of God’s good world.
As followers of Jesus, we recognize that by saying ‘no’ to this pipeline expansion we are affirming the narrow Way of righteousness and self-giving love. In fact, this is actually a big ‘yes’ to all creatures, to ourselves, and to the generations to come. And it is a big ‘yes’ to our Creator — who has been long forgotten, ridiculed, or willingly ignored by the powerful — but who nevertheless owns every inch of this world and will sooner or later call us to account.
May God’s kingdom come, may our leaders humble themselves, and may God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.