Both meetings were standing room only and drew at least a third of the local residents.
We were happy to be able to distribute our new campaign research paper entitled Coal: BC's Dirty Secret while we were at these meetings. BC is quietly the second largest exporter of coal in the world, shipping over 20 million tonnes of coal a year. While our provincial government talks green, and even receives awards for it's climate change efforts, they are also supporting plans to expand coal exports by opening new mines across the province. Meanwhile, all over the world people are fighting to stop coal mining and the burning of the world's dirtiest fossil fuel.
It was interesting to see the melding of more traditional concerns around health and the local environmental with new concerns around climate change. Burning coal creates more climate changing pollution then either oil or gas, which makes it the obvious target for immediate action. At the end of the meeting John Snyder, the chair of CoalWatch, held up a large photo and introduced us all to Fred the Cut Throat Trout, who would be put at risk by this development. He urged everyone in the room to get involved to help Fred as well as the local salmon and the Bayne Sound watershed, and everyone and everything around the world impacted by climate change.
This is where you come in. We need help to spread the word about BC's dirty secret. We can do something here in BC that makes a real difference for the entire planet. Check out www.wildernesscommittee.org/coal to learn more about coal mines in BC. You will learn more about proposed Raven Mine on Vancouver Island, as well as a mine threatening endangered caribou herd in the North East, and another with potential impacts on the pristine Sacred Headwaters in the North West.
Ready to take action? If after checking out the report you want to do more, please think about taking some newspapers to distribute in your community. Contact Sven at sven@wildernesscommittee.org and let him know how many copies you would like and your mailing address, so we will get them in the mail to you ASAP. Then on your next visit to your local coffee shop, library or doctors office, help get the word out, by just drop off a couple copies.
Thanks
Ben West | Healthy Communities Campaigner
Wilderness Committee
Thank you for supporting wilderness.
The Wilderness Committee is Canada's largest membership-based, citizen-funded wilderness preservation organization. We work for the preservation of Canadian and international wilderness through research and grassroots education. The Wilderness Committee works on the ground to achieve ecologically sustainable communities. We work only through lawful means.
You can contact the Wilderness Committee's Victoria Office at 250-388-9292.
As a Wilderness Committee member and supporter, you will be an important part of saving vital wilderness areas. You can also help us by volunteering. Find out how to become a member or if you would like to.
There really is nothing as inspiring as watching a community work together from the grassroots to take action. Recently my colleague Sven and I had the privilege to be part of two fiery town hall meeting organized to discuss the proposed Raven Coal mine in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. In response to the proposed coal mine residents have come together to form a citizens action group called Coalwatch Comox Valley and they have been holding meeting all over the region. We went to meetings on Denman Island and in the municipality of Qualicum. 
