Climbing aboard, speaking out

Hello, I’m Alexandra and I have recently joined Georgia Strait Alliance in the new role of Energy and Shipping Campaigner. In the coming months I’ll be using this blog to keep you up to date with our work to stop the expansion of crude oil tanker traffic in the Salish Sea. But to start, I thought I’d tell you a little about myself and why I’m so thrilled to be working with GSA on this campaign.

I grew up in Vancouver and spent my childhood summers exploring the beaches and forests of the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island.  My roots in this spectacular place helped to foster my love of the natural world, and my commitment to speaking out against the forces that threaten earth’s life support systems.

After studying Geography at UVic, I moved to the UK to do a Master’s in environmental communication, and then a PhD exploring what motivates people to take action on climate change. At the same time, I was heavily involved in campaigning against major climate-polluting infrastructure expansion projects, including a new runway at Heathrow Airport and a new generation of coal fired power plants – both of which we eventually stopped. More recently, I led a transit user campaign to overturn the government’s plans to drastically increase public transit fares.

All along, I watched as more and more information came to light about the risks of Canada’s tar sands – to the lands and waters of Alberta, to our global climate, and to BC’s coast in the form of a juggernaut of new pipelines, terminals and tanker traffic. I also watched as a powerful wave of opposition grew, and BC residents came together to say a resounding ‘NO’ to the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. That experience has provided us with important lessons, new alliances, and most importantly huge momentum that we can apply to stopping Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline proposal, and preventing the devastation it could bring to the Strait.

I feel very lucky to be working back in BC at this exciting time, at a set of decision points where instead of locking ourselves into more climate pollution and more oil spills, we can chart a new course towards a sustainable energy future for BC. 

I am also privileged to be joining a team of such passionate and committed staff, volunteers and members, and I look forward to meeting and working with many of you, both online and in the real world. In the meantime, keep an eye on this blog or drop me an email (alexandra AT georgiastrait.org) with any questions, if there is any way I can help you in your work, or just to say hi!

Good things come in small packages

Back in the day when I was a school-kid, slogan t-shirts were all the rage – many of them went over my 9 year-old head (and remembering them now, I can’t believe how inappropriate some of those sayings were) but the kernel of truth from my best friend’s  "Good things come in small packages" shirt has stuck with me over the years. I was reminded of my friend and that shirt recently, when a small envelope was received at GSA’s Nanaimo office.

The enclosed note said: I want to help save the world and the oceans and the animals  I hope the five dolers from my pigey bank is good

The sincerity behind that note, carefully printed by a child’s hand, brings me back to what drives us at Georgia Strait Alliance to do what we do every day, and to what motivates each of our members and donors to give what they can, even in these hard times, to help us to continue our work to protect and restore Georgia Strait and its surrounding communities each year.

Photo by Cheryl Onciul

From the $5 from our young donor to the $5000 first-time gift from a new donor, we are grateful for the contributions we received in 2012 from the wide range of individuals who share our belief in a future for our region that includes clean air and water, healthy wild salmon runs, rich marine life and natural areas, and sustainable communities. As we begin 2013, we want to thank our long-time members, new members, and those who have recently renewed their memberships after a period of inactivity. Your monthly gifts, one-time gifts, bequests – small and large, donations through online crowd sourcing platforms, and donations of stocks have helped us to increase our membership by 36% in 2012! 

With more members standing with us, GSA’s voice is louder as we speak out in opposition to increases in infrastructure for fossil fuels, like Kinder Morgan’s new TransMountain pipeline proposal. Your donations help us to publish materials that inform individuals about the ways we can all minimize our unintended negative impacts on the marine environment and allow us to participate in community events on both shores of the Strait to connect with communities around the region.  Together we are helping more marinas than ever before go green, through our Clean Marine BC eco-certification program. And our increased membership gives even more weight to our work to protect Species at Risk, including our southern resident killer whales, whose existing protection is tenuous at best and under threat of being weakened even further through anticipated changes to federal environmental legislation.

So yes, our young environmentalist friend, the $5 from your piggy bank IS good. We need it, just like we need the gifts of our hundreds of members and donors – our diversity and our numbers make us stronger. Thank you! We will do our best to help save the world and the oceans and the animals for you and your friends for generations to come. Good things really do come in small packages!

This blog was submitted by Cheryl Onciul, Georgia Strait Alliance's Grant Coordinator.