As British Columbia’s New Democratic Party prepares for its first biennial convention since winning the 2020 election, memories of last summer’s deadly heat domes and wildfires still burn deeply. B.C. is experiencing the global consequences of carbon-intensive extractivism – the kind of “rip and ship” (extract and export) economic policies pursued by the previous right-of-centre B.C. Liberal government for most of its 2001-2017 term of office.
As the global climate summit COP26 drags out to its miserable end this week in Glasgow, Scotland, the major capitalist powers and the banks and corporations that call the shots in national and world politics have largely failed in their efforts to use the summit to provide a semblance of “progress” in resolving the global climate emergency.
For almost four years, the Tiny House Warriors have been working to stop the TMX pipeline from encroaching on their territory, and as of Tuesday, the Secwe̓pemc land defenders have a human rights award to go along with their efforts.
Rev. David Haslam, a well-known British human rights and tax justice firebrand, has this little joke he tells. “I am really worried about the souls of the wealthy.”
“If we are going to save their souls, we’re going to have to take some money off them.”