Above photo: January 8th, 2019, downtown Vancouver rally
“An immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis.”
—the above quotation is from the BioScience Journal, in a report published on November 5th, 2019. See link below for the report:
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806#
—This journal is published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, (AIBS). 11,000 (that’s eleven thousand) world scientists have signed this latest report.
—the word “Biosphere” (in above quotation) means:
“The regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth (or analogous parts of other planets) occupied by living organisms.”…from the Oxford Dictionary.
and from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere
I took the following photographs during nine rallies/marches/strikes for the climate/actions which friends, family & I took part in during 2019. The photographs, showing signs, banners and crowds speak for themselves. I’ve selected twenty photos in all, though there are plenty more in my cell phone and camera! The worldwide Climate Strike, which took place on September 27th, 2019, drew 100,000 (that’s one hundred thousand) people here in Vancouver alone. It was very energizing and heartening to be marching across the Cambie Bridge with so many like-minded fellow citizens, all of us trying to convey our concerns about the climate emergency to “the powers that be”. Serious changes to the way we all live on our beautiful planet have to be made, as quickly as possible. “Old habits die hard” is a saying from the past which fits our current challenging situation here on Earth. But old habits CAN be changed! Taking part in rallies and demonstrations is one way in which we can all take action, however small our individual actions may seem. There is strength in numbers, and these rallies keep getting larger all the time. The message is clear: millions of humans are now awake to the need for changes in the ways we live, in order to lessen carbon emissions and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and in order to lessen our footprint on the planet, for the sake of all living things.
February 22nd…Climate Convergence…No Pipeline Expansion…Extinction Rebellion sign in the foreground
April 8th…Convention Centre…Senators’ Meeting
May 3rd…Strike for the Climate…Vancouver Art Gallery
May 3rd…Strike for the Climate
May 3rd…Strike for the Climate
May 22nd…Coast Protectors…Trudeau at the Opus Hotel…
No Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion
May 22nd…No TMX
May 22nd…rallies are usually peaceful, but on this day, one rowdy was arrested.
June 9th…Science World…Wilderness Committee…No Pipeline Expansion
June 9th…Science World…No TMX
July 17th…at the CBC building…350.org & Our Time…asking media to report on the climate crisis and demand that political party leaders speak about it during the upcoming federal election campaign in October, (and they did…some of them).
September 27th…at Vancouver City Hall…worldwide Climate Strike…100,000 people marched in Vancouver!
September 27th…at Vancouver City Hall…Climate Strike
September 27th…heading down Cambie Street, towards the bridge and downtown
September 27th…100,000 strong, Strike for the Climate
September 27th…Respect Your Mother (Earth)
September 27th…Climate Strike…we reach downtown
October 25th…Strike for the Climate…Vancouver Art Gallery…15,000 people,organized by Sustainabiliteens
October 25th…back at the VAG after the march…Greta Thunberg on the Gallery steps, just to the left of the flag, preparing to speak. Strike for the Climate.
To sum up, the following four quotations are from people I respect:
Any culture that devastates its air and water and soil, and refuses to admit that it’s behaving in an unreasonable way, is pathological and needs to be reinvented.
—Thomas Berry, in conversation with Nancy Ryley, from: The Forsaken Garden, l998
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Unless you believe the future can be better, it’s unlikely you’ll step up and take responsibility for making it so.
—Noam Chomsky, political activist and philosopher, as quoted in British Country Living magazine, October 2019
The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
—Edward O. Wilson, in Biophilia, 1984
We need to get angry and understand what is at stake. And then we need to transform that anger into action and to stand together united and just never give up. We are striking to disrupt the system, to create attention. And I just hope that it will turn out well.
—Greta Thunberg, climate activist, leader and visionary human being! (age: 16) 2019
If you’d like to read my previous blog post about the climate crisis, here’s the link:
https://joiedusoleil.wordpress.com/2019/05/31/the-only-thing-that-matters/
Thanks for reading!