Momentum for Change: Global bike ride for the climate

Hi

All around the world, the fight against the causes of climate change is really heating up.

One of the focal points of this struggle is in regard to the expansion of the tar sands right in our own back yard. Last month, we hosted a rally in Burnaby in solidarity, with the folks at the White House trying to stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. This was about limiting the supply of oil to international markets. This month we are targeting the demand for oil coming from transportation.

We need your help to keep the momentum going in the fight against climate change.

350.org, the group that played an important role in the White House protests, has organized a gigantic international day of action focused on transportation alternatives. The Moving Planet Day of Action is on Sept. 24th.

We are helping to host the Vancouver component of the day of action. We are thrilled to once again be working with Youth for Climate Justice Now, the same group we organized the Earth Day parade with this year. Our event in Vancouver is called Momentum for Change and will involve a bike ride (or skateboard or unicycle or pogo stick or however else you want to self-propel) from Science World to Stanley Park.

The ride will start at 2pm. Leaving from Creekside Community Centre at False Creek close to Science World. We'll take the new, continuous bike route along Dunsmuir and Hornby through downtown Vancouver, and from there up Beach Avenue ending up at Second Beach in Stanley Park.

Before the bike ride, starting at 12 noon there will be festivities and a public forum on transportation alternatives at Creekside Community Centre with our friends from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Better Environmentally Sound Transportation. We will be discussing the paper we co-published with the CCPA called Transportation Transformation.

The number one source of greenhouse gas emissions in BC is automobiles, and of course transportation is primarily what oil is used for worldwide. To break our society's addiction to oil we need to break our automobile dependence, and transition to bikes and more effective and affordable public transit.

For all the information about this day of action against climate change, check out MovingPlanetVancouver.org

So get your bike ready and make plans to join us -- together we can keep this movement rolling!

Ben West | Healthy Communities Campaigner
Wilderness Committee

P.S. Our 2012 Wilderness and Wildlife Calenders are now available for sale. Check out this year's incredible photos on our online store. Members will be mailed their complimentary calenders in early October, renew your membership today to be sure to get yours.