Last Wednesday, we were 12 activists. Twelve angry citizens. We occupied the Valéro terminal, at the end of Enbridge’s 9B pipeline, for almost 24 hours.
We didn’t get up Wednesday morning to block the terminal for the fun. We made this strong gesture after struggling for years. For years we have signed petitions. We demonstrated. We wrote open letters. We got involved in politics.
But that wasn’t enough. The world around us continued to crumble. GHG emissions continued to rise. Species continued to die out. Waterways continued to be polluted. Foundries, cement factories and oil companies continued to pollute the air. The rights of indigenous peoples continued to be violated.
And on the one hand, it’s normal: as long as there are only a few of us struggling and screaming at injustice, the oil companies and the banks will continue to have a good laugh in their corner while collecting monster profits. As long as the majority continues to go about its business, the environmental massacres will continue to take place. Even though the majority like » videos of turtles eating plastic. Even if the majority say “love the environment” in the polls. This is not enough. It was never enough to change the world, and it never will be.
We can no longer lie to each other. Society is already lying to us by dangling the American dream as the recipe for absolute happiness. Our economic system is already lying to us and making us believe that growth at all costs is possible and desirable. Please, let’s not lie to ourselves: the current system is not viable.
No, we cannot hope for a peaceful retirement, with a house, a car and a nice well-mown lawn. When we reach retirement age, the world will no longer be burning… it will already be charred. When we reach retirement age, the beaches of Florida will be under water and the villages of Europe will be parched. When we reach retirement age, climate migrants will camp in our cities. By the time we reach retirement age, economic crises, runaway inflation and rising inequality will have left us penniless.
it’s time to wake up
It is no longer time to wait for others to do the work for us. There is no longer time to clear your conscience by sending $20 to Équiterre during the Holidays or by composting in your corner.
It’s time to wake up. To get up. To struggle.
Yeah, we blocked that pipeline for just 24 hours. No, it will not change much to GHG emissions. But what can change, and what must change, is how we collectively tackle the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis.
It’s time to get organized. It is time to create citizen committees to block extractivist projects that destroy our ecosystems. It is time to work together to meet our needs according to our values, according to our realities. Not those of the systems that are supposed to “create our happiness”.
The economic system invites us to be grateful for the profits we make and the wages we receive. The political system invites us to vote every four years and above all not to think too much in the meantime. The education system invites us to sit with our backs straight and raise our hands to speak. The cultural system invites us to stay home on Friday nights and watch Netflix.
Now is not the time to be polite and accept these invitations. It is time to overthrow these systems. Together.
I’m not asking you to chain yourself to an oil tower. I ask you to hear our cry from the heart.
You do not know where to start ? Look around you. Quebec is full of citizen groups and organizations trying to bury these obsolete systems and replace them with promising solutions.
The civic struggle is like the living. It takes diversity to work. I will not tell you today that one approach is better than another. Everywhere, you have to try different approaches. Try. And maybe fall. But always get up. Through these trials, one thing is certain: it is together that we can change this world. Above all, do not stay in your corner to do your green things; get organized in your living environments, your workplaces, your cultural and sporting environments. Together, let’s build resilient communities capable of responding to the challenges imposed on us by environmental crises.
This world, we have no choice but to change it if we don’t want it to explode in our face. But we have the possibility to choose how we will change it. And this world, it must be changed into gang ! Because it’s more effective… But also because it’s a lot more motivating! Try it, you’ll see!