Climate Camp Comes to Canada

For the first time in North America, Climate Justice, a direct action climate change movement that originally started in the UK, is holding a Climate Camp in Dunham, Quebec, August 18-22, 2010. The lead organization is Climate Justice Montreal. Of course, one would expect that Quebec would be the site of the first Climate Camp, as Quebec, and Montreal in particular, is far more politically radical than many other Provinces and major cities in Canada.

Details about Climate Justice Montreal and the upcoming Climate Action Camp are here.

From the Climate Justice Montreal website:

"This August, Quebec will play host to one of the first ever Climate Camps in Canada, bringing together activists from Canada, the United States and around the globe in a horizontal, grassroots gathering to learn, share skills, and continue building a powerful climate justice movement.

The camp will take place over two weeks in Dunham, QC southeast of Montreal, with the dates of August 18-22 set as “Convergence Days”. The Camp is focusing on the Enbridge Trailbreaker project this year, a transcontinental pipeline that would bring dirty tar sands bitumen to Montreal and beyond to Maine, eventually ending up on tankers heading to refineries in the Gulf Coast.

Check back here and at www.uncampement.net for more info."

I'll be gathering more information about the first Climate Camp and reporting here.

Climate Justice Montreal has released some statements about the Enbridge Trailbreaker Pipeline, the target of their first action.

Foreword from Climate Justice Montreal

Each day in Canada, the Athabasca tar sands transform the pristine boreal forest into a vast moonscape, through the largest and most destructive industrial project on the planet. Cannibalizing water, natural gas, trees and earth the tar sands are the single largest point source of non- tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions in the entire country.

The Trailbreaker pipeline, and others like it across North America, are being pursued in order to facilitate a five fold increase in tar sands size and production over the next 15 years. It will pump 200,000 barrels of dirty tar sands bitumen each day from Alberta to Portland, Maine. It crosses 5 provinces, a national border and 5 states, eventually loaded onto tankers to be shipped all the way to the Gulf Coast of Texas.

This project would endanger local ecosystems, wildlife, and human health,all while facilitating the expansion of the tar sands. This report will attempt to explain the local

and global impacts of this project, so that communities all along its path of destruction can stand up and stop it before this toxic nightmare becomes a reality – Climate Justice Montreal