Why People of Faith Should Engage to Stop the Pipelines

Speech for Ecology Ottawa – Ottawa East Pipeline Protest 2013 09 29

It is a great honour to stand before you to talk about why I believe the environment and our relationship to it is a matter of Faith.  Thank you to the Algonquin people for their permission for us to meet and speak together on this unceded land.  My thanks to all the Unitarians across Canada who have encouraged and supported me.  Thanks to ClimateFast and these activists from Toronto who are in day nine of a 12-day fast.  Thanks to Ecology Ottawa and Ben Powless and to all of you for coming.  Thank you to the great mystery, the spirit of love, that gives us the capacity to work together towards the common good of all humanity and indeed of all life.

I have to come to believe that climate change is the great challenge of our generation and it is our obligation to do what we can to solve it.  When we read the science we know that we are headed on a collision course with the life support systems of the planet.  We don’t know how much time we have but we fear it is very little.  It will take an enormous effort by all of us working together to turn things around.  With politics in their current state it is difficult to believe we can do anything.  Pause.  We must believe that if we take action we can change things.  As Maud Barlow puts it, hope is a moral imperative.  

If we stop hoping, we will do nothing.  In two more generations half of the territory that we now occupy as humans will be desert.  The sea level will have risen 6 feet.  How many people will see their land go under water. How many millions of people will die off?  Will we lose whole cultures and identities?  Imagine Bangladesh, or Florida, under water! What will happen to our civilization under these stresses?  What kinds of costs will we face?  And what we do with the climate refugees?

If you are an active part of a faith community, then you know that religious community is all about relationships:  relationships to yourself, to the rest of the community, to the earth, and to the great mystery that none of us can ever really understand.  Throughout time religions have served to help people live together in peace.  They have taught us what is a good way to live and what is not.   It is time to reflect on our personal and collective relationship to the earth?  

I and my colleagues in ClimateFast are in our ninth of twelve days of Carbon Fasting or food fasting on Parliament Hill.  Our fast is as a prayer to raise consciousness and political will to dramatically change our policies on greenhouse gas emissions.  We will not see the kind of political will develop without a very broad change of heart.  How do we make that transformation?  We have to start with ourselves.   What do we stand for? What is it that we believe?  What are we here for?  What’s missing in my story? We each need a strong sense of purpose and a deep understanding that our relationships with each other and with the earth are the ground of our being.

From this place, you choose to put your energy where it matters.  You do what is under your control to do, to move things in the right direction.  If all of us do this, the people around us will see it and respond.  Some will join us and the energy will shift.

Standing against these pipelines is a strategy to stop the tar sands from expanding.  We don’t want anyone to burn all that oil and further pollute our atmosphere.  Standing against these pipelines protects our rivers, lakes and streams from dangerous spills of dilbit that can’t be cleaned up.   Standing against these pipelines defends the traditional ways of our First Nations brothers and sisters.  We are protecting mother earth, our only home.

It is time to move Canada into the twenty-first century – the renewable energy century.  It is time to build the solutions rather than continue this terrible pollution from carbon energy.  It is time for all of us to pull together, in common effort towards a sustainable lifestyle for humanity on this planet. 

Attending this rally will not be enough.  What else can you do?  Take inspiration from ClimateFast.  Visit us on the hill.  Join our closing circle next Wednesday at 7pm.  Write politicians at all levels.  Write the newspapers.  And after Clayton Thomas Mueller’s comments – write your First Nations communities and let them know you support them.  Talk to your family and friends.  This is not easy work.  No one wants to listen.  Try starting light.  Ask them what they are doing to reduce their own footprint and compare notes.  Keep in mind, you will need to be ready.  You may have to step out of your comfort zone and commit civil disobedience.  Our fast is a prayer for a very big change of heart all over the world.  We have to start believing that life on this planet is worth saving, and that we can do something about it if we try. 

Together we can let our politicians know that their political choices matter to us and that what they do is critical to the well being of our children and grandchildren.  When the people want it enough, the politicians will follow.

Thank you for listening.  Thank you for giving me the honour of speaking from my heart.

All Our Relations

Rev. Frances Leigh Deverell

Report Confirms the Need for Action is Urgent

2013 09 27

Today we lost one of our five fasters to other activities and two others who were going to be joining us this week-end to illness.  The four of us who were left gave it our all to create an event that might get a media bite..   With the help of friends (a big thanks to Graham Saul and his staff at Ecology Ottawa and to Bob Stevenson and Koozma Tarasoff) we carried our banners through the Byward market to 24 Sussex to highlight the new IPCC report on climate change and what we have to do about it.  CTV actually came with camera but we weren’t good enough to catch the CTV news.  A bit disappointing. 

The IPCC report was about as expected.  Immediately climate scientists were saying "the debate is over" while climate deniers were saying "See -- the temperature hasn't risen for fifteen years and in some areas ice is increasing,"  These arguments show people's deep misunderstanding of the issues.  We still have the hottest 30 years in 800 years.  There has been no decline in temperature as one might expect if normal cycles were in play.  Part of the reason why atmospheric temperatures have not gone up is that heat has been absorbed by the oceans, and that is why the ice is melting at double the rate expected.  If there are areas where the ice is expanding, it can usually be explained by particular localized circumstances.  The story is still the same.  We need to work together all around the globe to focus on renewable energy and wean ourselves from carbon fuels.  We need a change of heart.  And hope that we can create the political will to do it.  

Several people from other countries told me today there is only one solution.  We have to change the people we are electing into leadership.

It was a hot day in Ottawa.  We returned to the hill to hand out flyers and talk to staffers and visitors for another day.  We had a moment of encouragement when Marc Garneau decided to sign the pledge.  That brings us up to 107 MP’s. 

Our energy is flagging.  You could give us some encouragement by writing to us and telling us you have sent a letter to a politician or a newspaper.  I think  it is especially important to write to Justin Trudeau.  He is on record as supporting Tar Sands development.  He needs to be persuaded that this is not an acceptable policy after this IPCC report’s recommendations.  If you are in Ontario, you could also write Kathleen Wynne.  She is designing Ontario’s energy policy.  There’s a sample letter on my blog.

We have to get our heads out of the tar sands.  A much better future is possible if we only dream it and make it happen.  

Views From Around the World

2013 09 25 – Views From Around The World

People have been asking me how the fasters are doing.  So far so good.  Those who have been on broth only, tell me they have whitish tongues and some physical discomfort.  They are appreciating the ever-simmering pot of pureed vegetable soup on the stove.  They claim the stomach is shrinking.  Without a belt their pants are falling off.   Feelings of hunger vary from day to day but on day 5 they are reporting not being hungry.  They come home deeply tired after a long day in the sun and work till midnight doing the communication and making new plans.  They seem to be surviving on hope and passion for our cause.  Those of us who are partially food fasting and carbon fasting are a little stronger.  We’re still getting about on our bikes and loving it.   All of your support and actions are keeping us going.  Thanks to so many of you who have sent encouraging messages and told us about what you are doing.

Visits on the hill included people from all over the world.  We met two young families with children whose parents are deeply concerned about the lack of action of this government.  We learned what was happening overseas.  In England the Conservative government does not support renewable energy and people are resisting windmills.  In Germany one couple told us people are complaining about high prices and the speed of change to renewable energy.  They said renewable energy is unaffordable and the technology is changing so fast.  Other Germans talk proudly of the solar collectors on most houses and buildings.  In Switzerland an older couple were concerned about glaciers melting and receding snow caps.  They can no longer ski where they once did as children, and never will again.  The melting has resulted in rockfalls, making driving dangerous.  They were encouraged by the good progress they were making in renewable energy.  The country is very aware and supporting the transition. 

The Libyan family was very interested in what we are doing.  They, of course, experience the severe droughts.  A Dutch couple was very well informed.  They’ve had a lot of experience with changes because so much of Holland is below sea level.  Their technology for mitigating the negative effects of climate change is well developed.  Vietnam is having more flooding and more pollution and they can’t drink the water without boiling it.  People are not very aware about climate change and the government is doing little.  One Vietnamese young man recognized the 350.org button and has friends who are working on the issues.  People in Mexico and Brazil and most of Central America also can’t drink the tap water.  A BC young family travelling across Canada went to see the Kokanee glacier and found it gone.  An Australian man understands the issues because he does environmental work.  Australia is also exporting coal, like Canada.  He thought Australia and Canada were two of the worst governments on the environment at this time. Another Australian couple told us their new PM is a redneck who will bring Australia back to the sixties.  He doesn’t believe in climate change.

The visitors from France were the most impassioned of all.  People there are very aware because of the very topsy turvy weather this past year.  They had snow where it has never been in the South of France and exceptional heavy rains everywhere.  Torrential rains caused damage and destruction of homes along the coast followed by a hot, dry summer.  The government does little or nothing.  One woman talking to us was astounded at the way Canadians waste water -- inefficient showers and people standing pouring water down the drain while they brush their teeth.  “We must have a lot of water to waste,” she said.

There were curious young people who were eager to know more about climate change and other young people who were satisfied and complacent with the way things are.

All in all a very interesting day.