Category: Climate Action

Stories from Vancouver Unitarians at the front lines of climate action.

Climate Justice and Food Sovereignty

May 1, 2021 • Director RE

What can we do individually and collectively to reduce harm and bring about climate justice?

Our food system has a huge impact on climate. Food production is fraut with racism and oppression of the people who grow our food. It is also a very complex system. Eating less meat, particularly red meat, has clear health and climate benefits. Large scale change needs to come from good policy and public pressure to create system change. The following organizations are working to create real change for those who produce and harvest our food as well as the impact of agriculture on our planet:

Food Justice goals from Canada’s Food Workers Union
Soul Fire Farm an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Two of their insightful documents apply to rights activists across North America:
- Food Sovereignty Action Steps
- Equity Guidelines for Donors and Foundations
Migrante BC, organizing around the protection and promotion of migrant worker rights in BC. Migrante BC is calling on the Trudeau government to move to a single tier immigration system. Move to Canada for any reason? Everyone should have landed immigrant status and protections.
Earthsave Canada – Vancouver – advocating for the move to a plant-based diet for environmental sustainability, better health, and compassion towards animals.
Farmers on 57th – a non profit organization which operates an urban farm with a CSA program, educational community gardens, and therapeutic accessible gardens in Vancouver, B.C.
KPU Department of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems – opportunity to complete a Bachelor of Applied Science in Sustainable Agriculture at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Richmond campus, with lots of hands-on learning!
KPU Institute for Sustainable Food Systems – research and outreach programming, including analysis of local food systems.

These are good places to start for information and action. Stay tuned for more!

Pipelines, Brunette River and ME/WE

February 3, 2021 • C Malcolm

By Catherine Hembling

Pipelines, Brunette River and ME/WE…
I think there’s a song that goes something like that!

These past months along the Brunette have brought great resolve and activity to the lives of many activists, many of them seniors. I feel invigorated by my involvement in something so much bigger than I am. As well, I walk in beauty, at least once a week, along the Brunette as part of my “work”.

I am a member the Prayer Circle, in turn part of PPSTMX (Protect the Planet Stop TransMountain Expansion). There are legal fees to pay, there is soup to be delivered, there are people to meet!

We are publicly and peacefully defending the Brunette’s Salmon runs, riparian zones, trees, water quality, environment. As well, we actively support the courageous tree sit which has been going on since Dec. 21/20 with little Press coverage. By doing so we hope to increase the public’s resolve to speak out against this urban pipeline construction. We hold PM Trudeau to his assertion that there has to be community support for TMX.

This salmon run is a particular treasure, one of very few urban salmon streams in the world. It has been restored from open dumping site by volunteers, starting in the late 1970’s. A public Greenway full of birds and wildlife now runs almost the full length of the river and its tributary creeks, under the administration of Metro Vancouver.

Long term could the Brunette be re-restored? Maybe, …..but not the Climate. Climate changes are happening already. More oil burned is more CO2 in the atmosphere. Climate changes can only get worse before they get better. We think to the future. Overall, time is on the side of protesters. Each delay to construction gives the market and economic facts of the project a better chance to be understood by the public. Green job creation brings prosperity to many more workers than pipeline construction. Politicians will always want to be elected and then re-elected. That is our lever.

Electorates are powerful if ME/WE choose to be involved!

Outreach Opportunities Fund New Recipient: Burns Bog

June 8, 2020 • Carolyn Grant

Our Outreach Opportunities Fund recipient for the June-Sept 2020 period is the Burns Bog Conservation Foundation, which was set up in 2002 as an endowment fund for the Burns Bog Conservation Society. Burns Bog is a globally unique ecosystem functioning as a major regulator of regional climate and as the “the Lungs of the Lower Mainland”. Endowment funds are also to be used for research relating to peatlands/wetlands and the development of an Education Centre. Read more about the connections between Burns Bog and the Vancouver Unitarians.

CUC National Voice Statement, February 2020

February 18, 2020 • Leslie Kemp

The recent RCMP raids of Wet’suwet’en land defenders in northwestern British Columbia has provoked widespread rallies, blockades and protests, world-wide media coverage, public statements by First Nations, politicians, industry, labour, and the public. In view of these developments, we think it timely and important to restate the initial position taken by the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) on January 10, 2019:

CUC Pledges Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en

The Canadian Unitarian Council has joined thousands of organizations and individuals pledging solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, who are blocking the development of a Coastal GasLink pipeline on their traditional territories in northwestern British Columbia:

WE COMMEND the courage and vision of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and their community of activists.
WE ARE WATCHING across the province, country and internationally.
WE DENOUNCE any attempt by Coastal GasLink Pipeline, the federal government, provincial government or RCMP to interfere in the rights of the Wet’suwet’en to occupy, manage or maintain their lands.
WE URGE that any and all actions taken by the federal and provincial government, industry, and policing agencies must be consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Anuk Nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en laws) and collective Title.
WE PLEDGE support to the frontline land defenders and affirm the collective hereditary governance of the Wet’suwet’en who are enforcing Wet’suwet’en laws on their unceded lands.

Obviously, the situation has continued to evolve since last year. We recognise this is a complex matter and many of us bring strong opinions and passionate voices to the conversation—given our Unitarian Universalist principles and history, that is how it should be. We recognise, as well, quoting the Afro-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, that “if there is no struggle, there is no progress” for “power concedes nothing without a demand.”

While we reaffirm the January 10, 2019 CUC Statement pledging solidarity with Wet’suwet’en, we urge Canadian Unitarian Universalists to reflect on how we live our faith and convictions when interests and constituencies are polarized. We urge each other to live our principles. May our actions be guided by respect for each other’s dignity, by compassion and empathy, by the voice of conscience and reason, by a desire for justice and equity, and by a deep respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

We urge Canadian Unitarian Universalists to read and become familiar with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—our nation is a signatory to this Declaration; many of its articles clarify and promote the work of reconciliation and de-colonialisation which we dare hope is still alive in Canada today and will be for generations to come.

Birthday Party Fundraiser for Climate Action

January 22, 2020 • Tamiko Suzuki

A Night of Good Cheer and a Rousing Success! $3000 Raised for Raven Trust’s Anti-TMX Campaign!

On a cold, rainy night in January, over 50 friends and family gathered in Hewett Hall to celebrate Tamiko Suzuki ‘s 60th birthday. After a moving welcome by Sto:lo elder and activist, Kwitsel, the evening turned raucous with parlour games. Guests were given coloured dots on their name tags to show how they were connected to Tamiko (family, work, UCV, book club, etc) and asked to sit at a table with as many colours as possible! The tables then competed in games of rock/paper/scissors (in Japanese!), Name that Tune (music from TV and film from the 60’s,70’s to today), Trivial Pursuit, and Charades, all with some connection to Tamiko’s life. Try to imagine contestants acting out the charades challenges; “Being charged by a rhino” (which was a true story) and “skinny dipping on New Year’s Day (also true). The winners got to dress Tamiko with items from a box so that at one point she was wearing a diving mask, blond wig, life jacket, and belly dancer belt.

The games were followed by delivery of a cake decorated with a dinosaur and speeches both funny and warm. The evening finished with International folk dancing and many brave friends trying out Bolivian, Finnish, and Greek/Roma dances.

Instead of presents, Tamiko asked guests to make a donation to RAVEN Trust’s anti-TMX campaign and over $3000 was raised. An additional $400 was donated to support the Wet’suet’en opposition to the Coastal Gas pipeline.

A big thanks and much love to the Environment Team who sponsored the event, provided the food, set up, cleaned up, matched a portion of the donations, and took part in the games and dances with grace and humour.

“Who is Billie Eilish???” Name That Tune answer stumps contestants.

Greta Thunberg Inspired Global Climate Strike on September 27th

September 21, 2019 • AnneD

Photo of Greta Thunberg, Global Climate Strike

Join Vancouver Unitarians under our banner at the
Vancouver Global Strike for Climate
Sept. 27 starting at 12:45 pm
City Hall 12th Avenue and Cambie St
(Northwest corner in front of City Square)

Watch Greta Thunberg deliver her historic message to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September 2019

Change is coming whether you like it or not — Greta Thunberg

This Global Climate Strike will likely be the largest mass mobilization for climate the world has ever seen. Led by youth, including Greta Thunberg, millions around the world will be walking off school and work to demand a rapid end to the fossil fuel era and climate justice for all.

On September 27th, we will stand together with people across the planet to demand climate justice. This global strike is not just for youth – this time, we need EVERYONE. We need you to put your normal life on hold and show up in the streets to demand dramatic and urgent action against the climate crisis. We will bring together citizens from Vancouver, the surrounding areas and the rest of BC to show our local and federal governments how much bolder we need them to be going forward. This action will build momentum to a federal election where we elect climate leaders.

Click here for 23 Reasons Why You Should Climate Strike On
Friday, September 27th

64 Red Dresses — Art Installation by Doreen Manuel

July 22, 2019 • admin

Above: Red Dresses to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women

Honour the Women Project

At the Stop Trans Mountain Pipeline rally at Creekside Park on June 9, 2019, Doreen Manuel, Secwepemc Nation film maker, and sister of the late Chief Arthur Manuel, announced that she is collecting red dresses (the symbol of missing and murdered Indigenous women) for her “Honour the Women project”. She will hang red dresses along the route of the pipeline in Secwepemc Territory both as an art installation and as a reminder to all who the victims are.

Thank you to all who contributed red dresses and cash! A total of 64 red dresses were collected from UCV members or purchased from thrift stores using donations by UCV members.

These dresses were delivered to the BC Union of Indian Chiefs and will be hung along the Trans Mountain pipeline route in Secwepemc territory.

This red dress collection drive at UCV was sponsored by the Social Justice Committee and supported by the Environment Team and other individuals.

The recently released report on the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls states that there is a correlation between resource extraction and violence against Indigenous women and girls. Work camps/man camps built for resource extraction projects are implicated in higher rates of violence against Indigenous women at the camps and neighbouring communities.

For more information about this project, please contact Doreen Manuel at: honourthewomen@gmail.com

Vancouver Unitarians

Vancouver Unitarians

Sunday Services: 11:00 am

Category: Climate Action

Above: We joined the die-in at the intersection of Broadway and Cambie, then marched to the middle of the Cambie bridge for the sit‑in

Above: Vancouver Unitarians Carry the Flame at the Cambie Bridge Sit‑In

We are all standing up for the climate and for our ecosystems, whenever we can and in whatever ways we can. Every little bit counts.

By Catherine Hembling Pipelines, Brunette River and ME/WE… I think there’s a song that goes something like that!

A Night of Good Cheer and a Rousing Success! $3000 Raised for Raven Trust’s Anti-TMX Campaign!

Contact the Enviro Team | Join Our Email Group

Above: Vancouver Unitarians join thousands at the Global Climate Strike in downtown Vancouver on September 27th 2019

An estimated 100,000 people, including Unitarians from all four Metro Vancouver congregations, rallied at Vancouver City Hall on September 27th for the Global Climate Strike

Above: Kiersten M. with UCV youth at the historic September 2019 global climate strike in downtown Vancouver

Many tens of thousands gathered for the Global Climate Strike at Vancouver City Hall September 27, 2019

Join Vancouver Unitarians under our banner at the Vancouver Global Strike for Climate Sept. 27 starting at 12:45 pm City Hall 12th Avenue and Cambie St (Northwest corner in front of City Square)