Students rally against coal exports
PETITIONS: B.C. teens pan government inaction, say they will be the ones who pay environmental price
Students in 12 B.C. cities met with their local MLAs on Wednesday to express their concerns about proposed thermal coal export facilities in the province and their potential impacts.
“There’s so much that the provincial government can be doing, but they’re not and we’re calling them out on it,” said Kate Hodgson, a Grade 12 student at Kitsilano Secondary School and director of Kids for Climate Action.
The day of action, called Defend Our Future, involved students meeting with or rallying in front of the offices of 21 MLAs, both Liberal and NDP.
They presented petitions to the MLAs and encouraged them to bring the petitions to the legislature in Victoria on Monday.
They also asked MLAs to sign a pledge to stop new thermal coal exports in B.C.
In August, Fraser Surrey Docks received approval from Port Metro Vancouver to build a $15-million coal transfer facility that would export four million tonnes of U.S. thermal coal to Asia each year.
Last April, the Ministry of Environment also approved a major coal terminal expansion at the Lafarge Texada Island facility.
Hodgson said the B.C. government is being hypocritical because it’s not opposing such expansions while saying that the province’s natural gas industry will displace demand for coal overseas.
“I think as high school students especially, we’re the ones who are going to have to face the consequences of our government inaction today,” said Hodgson.
“I think we have an incredible opportunity. We get to decide if we want to take action on climate change now and create an equitable, sustainable future or a path based on greed.
“I truly cannot understand how anyone can choose inaction at such an extraordinary time in history as this.”