HUNGER STRIKERs START! Can saving BC's standing forests from mills, ships, and chips grow any more fervent?
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
British Columbians,
It concerns ForestMarch BC 2022 that we have BC taxpayers so committed to saving forests and battling climate change that they are following Mahatma Gandhi and on April 1, embarked on a 25+ day hunger strike.
Is there any other issue in BC that has ever spawned such ardent actions for no personal gain?
"Deforestation is at the root of the climate emergency in British Columbia." - says old-growth forest activist Howard Breen who joined on this strike with Brent Eichler. Howard, Brent and others embark on solidarity fasts, seeking NDP Forestry Minister, Katrine Conroy meet their demand for a public meeting to discuss significant forestry concerns.
Please hear and share Howard's message as he prepares to begin his activism platform to save all BC's remaining old growth and spotlight NDP's 2017 election promise to curb raw log exports.
'This strike is very personal for me. We've been sucked into this fight, but I have a better reason than many to be in this struggle. In hindsight, I feel being a former lifelong NDP member and supporter, I definitely feel remorse and some responsibility for the liquidation of our old growth forests. I believe it would be extremely politically reckless of Minister Conroy to reject our overtures to meet given our organizational outreach.
To be sure, this hunger strike plays an important additional role in helping us understand what’s at stake with forest carbon sink liquidation, leading to climate collapse. The last few years in BC has been a sobering five alarm emergency of heat dome deaths, clearcut-induced landslides, forest droughts and mega-wildfires, the Fraser Valley floods, unprecedented glacier melt, and the complete destruction of the town of Lytton. Climate breakdown has turned some of our cities and towns into the hottest furnaces imaginable. I myself had to help one of my daughters evacuate her Ladysmith farm livestock from perishing during last summer’s early Mt. Hayes wildfire here on Vancouver Island.
Undertaking the hunger strike, I can easily stretch my mind to imagine the prolonged hunger that my children and grandchildren will endure if we don’t take immediate action on climate breakdown. I think we’ll agree: It is not a place we want to go.
https://www.facebook.com/SaveOldGrowth.CalltoAction/videos/650743959486100
We wish to remind you that it was the actions of hunger strikers Robert Fuller and James Darling in 2020 that served as the flash point that helped galvanized the Fairy Creek Forest Defenders to initiate the blockades in TFL 46. Over 2 years later, we have only increased the voice for saving all old growth, primary, native forests in BC, which are #WorthMoreStanding than as 2x4s, toilet paper, pellets or shipped off-shore raw. Our government and industry have not been able to sell the narrative that BC needs to continue to mine its forests for a few jobs or corporate economic gain; we know we need clean water, fresh air, flood protections, wildfire mitigations, biodiversity, and climate change protections MORE. Can the government of BC endure and afford more Fairy Creeks?
We will add that by sharing this information with
you is not meant as an endorsement of Howard's choice to hunger strike, but a
recognition of the life and death nature of what BC and biodiversity are facing
collectively and the length taxpayers and crown land holders are prepared to
go, as a result. We find it bewildering civilians must resort to these measures in order for government to respond, how
to you feel about Howard's desperate callout?
We will continue to amplify Howard's voice and elevate his message, that is the most important advocacy. " Many worldwide are already fighting to survive the Climate World War on an empty stomach, #SaveOldGrowth". Howard Breen.
ForestMarch BC 2022
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In Solidarity,
Organization Team Forest March BC 2021 https://www.forestmarchbc.com/
