B.C. students battle pipeline in Christy Clark’s backyard
VANCOUVER -- University of B.C. students Roasalind Sadowski and Allison Stocks want nothing less than a fundamental change in Canada with a shift away from an economy fuelled by oil.
Their goal is a very personal one: They are fearful of a climate future of increasing temperatures, droughts and rising oceans..
It’s why they were out Saturday morning, collecting a dozen hard-won petition signatures by knocking on doors of well-kept, expensive homes in the UBC Endowment Lands.
They were among 150 university and local high school students who fanned out in Christy Clark’s Vancouver-Point Grey riding to ask for support on a petition that calls for the premier to oppose the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline.
While first nations, environmentalists and some communities that protest the pipeline are concerned with the risk and effects of an oil spill, the UBC and high school students argue the oil flowing through the pipeline will produce more carbon emissions than already produced in British Columbia. The students say they don’t like that Canada is exporting greenhouse gas emissions.
UBC professor Kathryn Harrison has estimated the 525,000 barrels of oil per day that would be transported by the Northern Gateway pipeline will release 82.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year when eventually burned, more than the 67 million tonnes of greenhouse gases from all sources within B.C. in 2009.
“It’s not that we have a choice about whether we will take action on climate change, it’s about how long we are going to delay that action and what negative consequences that is going to have on our generation,” says Sadowski, a fourth-year student studying environmental policy.
“I tell my parents I’m terrified thinking about what my life is going to be like when I’m their age,” she said.
“That’s not something they want to hear, but that’s the kind of message we are trying to bring to people.”
At one doorstep, the students argue climate change has brought on African drought that has displaced millions of people.
But UBC Endowment Lands resident Philip Hill, who does not sign the petition, says these kinds of climate events that cause droughts have happened in the past.
Hill, a retired UBC engineering professor, does not believe that science has proved increased carbon concentrations in the atmosphere will harm the environment.
It’s a “dubious” claim, says Hill, who nevertheless applauds the students’ efforts.
His neighbour Edith Anderson, however, does sign the petition.
Anderson who grew up in Prince Rupert on the northwest coast, said she is concerned the project will harm the “pristine” coastline. “There’s probably going to be problems. That would be sad,” she says of the pipeline project.
Some environmentalists have argued that carbon emissions from the Alberta oilsands and from the oil that will be produced overseas should be a factor in a federal review.
However, the review is expected to focus on safety issues and the pipeline’s economic merit.
Calgary-based Enbridge is adamant the 1,173-kilometre pipeline — meant to open up new markets in China for Canada’s oil — can be built and operated safely.
The project will also be an economic boon to Canada, says the company.
While the Alberta and Canadian governments support accessing new markets for oil in Asia, B.C.’s premier, Clark, has not taken a position on the pipeline.
She says she will wait until the environmental review is complete, not expected until late this year or early in 2013.
Organizers of the petition say Clark declined to meet with them.
On Saturday, about half of the people in the UBC endowment land residences said no to signing the petition.
Those results are not too different than results from a recent federal NDP-commissioned poll that showed a slim majority of people support the pipeline.
UBC professor George Hoberg says a rough estimate pegs the number of signatures collected Saturday in Clark’s riding at about 1,800.
Hoberg, a member of the provincial and federal NDP parties, notes that many people were not home, as is the case in the UBC Endowment Lands.
Stocks, a fourth-year student studying environmental science, is not discouraged despite the effort needed to collect the handful of signatures.
She says they want to create an attitude shift, where the “human race” finally decides to turn to renewable energy like wind and solar.
“There are times when I feel why don’t I give up and get a job where I make a ton of money, and live my life for fun,” says Stocks.
“But at the end of the day, this is what I want to live for, and this is something I truly believe in and it is what matters.”