Feature story - January 21, 2008
Last year was an active one. Throughout 2007, Greenpeace Canada repeatedly took direct action, confronting both governments and corporations for destroying the environment. As we head into another year full of challenges and possibilities, we look back at the previous 12 months and toast some of the high points.
One of our early efforts was to expose the Conservative
government's attempts to renege on our international obligations
under the Kyoto Protocol. With Stephen Harper insisting that Canada
not meet its greenhouse gas emission targets, Greenpeace put the
prime minister under house arrest as a "climate criminal," locking
the gates to his official residence.
Global warming was also on our minds when we opened
a campaign office in Edmonton. Alberta's tar sands are one of
Canada's largest emitters of greenhouse gases, and an environmental
disaster that is destroying the province's landscape and polluting
its water. Greenpeace put the government on notice when its
activists hung a huge banner reading "Stop the Tar Sands" across
from the provincial legislature.
The Ontario government of Dalton McGuinty also took heat from
Greenpeace for its energy policy, specifically its $40 billion plan
to invest in nuclear power. During provincial elections last year,
Greenpeace brought home the fact that there is still no safe way to
store radioactive waste by dumping mock waste barrels at McGuinty's
campaign office.
Greenpeace also called attention to the Ontario government's
failure to close down coal plants as promised. In classic style,
the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise intercepted a freighter on Lake
Erie delivering coal to the Nanticoke power plant, Canada's largest
source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Arctic Sunrise also took direct action to save the Boreal
Forest, preventing a freighter carrying pulp from the Boreal Forest
from leaving port on the Saguenay River in Quebec. In another
effort to save the Boreal, Greenpeace occupied the offices of
Kimberly-Clark, which uses virgin pulp to make its disposable
tissues and toilet paper. And activists also climbed the
headquarters of Abitibi-Consolidated in downtown Montreal to hang a
massive banner denouncing the logging company's destruction of the
Boreal Forest.
Meanwhile
on the West Coast, Greenpeace highlighted the B.C. government's
failure to enact mandatory labelling of genetically engineered food
despite strong popular opinion in the province. To press the
government, we made a huge crop circle in a field of corn near
Abbotsford, which the government couldn't ignore.
In all, 2007 was a busy year for Greenpeace Canada. Thank you
for supporting our work!