Robert Redford

Robert Redford And I Occupy Vancouver

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Never let it be said that as a climate activist I’m not occasionally smitten by the desire to do a little Hollywood star-gazing. In the past, I’ve been known to scour the streets of Winnipeg for Brad Pitt when he was in filming in Old Market Square, or (going back even farther in my murky history) trying to catch a glimpse of Timothy Hutton (back when he was still a celebrity) when he was in Churchill for several weeks on location and I was working in the port town. I’ve never had any luck, and that hasn’t changed. I found out this morning that Robert Redford and Chris Cooper were seen filming near Occupy Vancouver. The Huffington Post reported:

Many passersby watching fire officials and city workers carry out safety adjustments at Occupy Vancouver on Tuesday got a in little stargazing, too, as Hollywood legend Robert Redford also made an appearance near the encampment.

I was at Occupy Vancouver while the fire officials and city workers walked through the site!  I even went around the corner and noticed the film crew at work, but having walked by a film crew the day before on Granville Street without seeing anyone interesting, I didn’t bother to go any further. It turns out some things in life are consistent, my luck in just missing celebrities being one of them!

Here’s another hero of mine, Bill McKibbon from 350.org, in a video put out by Tar Sands Action after the victory against the Keystone XL pipeline last week, a cause championed by Mr. Redford as well:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7e4Cfc-KRGA]

And here is Redford talking about why the Keystone XL pipeline is such a bad idea:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=E6AyQBChpO0]

*OMG – I just got on Twitter after I posted this and found out that BILL MCKIBBON was also at Occupy Vancouver last night – and so was I, for a few minutes but my husband has less time to Occupy while we’re visiting this city, so we left about 10 minutes after we got there.  I CAN”T BELIEVE IT!! That would have been so amazing, to hear him speak. But like I said, my luck is consistent if not good!*

Just Say No – It’s Time For Canada To Wean Itself Off Its Addiction to Tar Sands Crude

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This hour protestors are gathering on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, to show their opposition to the Alberta tar sands, and specifically the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that could be built from Alberta across the U.S. to carry tar sands bitumen to Texas refineries.

I would dearly love to be there, but by the time this event was organized I was committed to helping with all-day events for Moving Planet day this past Saturday, and a sustainability workshop on Sunday. As I live a 5 1/2 hour drive from a direct Ottawa flight, and am a 24 hour drive away from Ottawa, I struggled with the decision about giving up my local commitment to building sustainability or traveling (and burning carbon) to make a very important national statement to our government and to other Canadians. In the end, a friend suggesting a low-carbon alternative. She couldn’t attend, either, but recruited a friend in Ottawa to go. As it turns out, a friend and fellow Citizens Climate Lobby member was in Ottawa visiting her daughter this weekend, and so we were able to negotiate extending her ticket so that she could attend today’s event, and represent both of us. It’s a creative and low-carbon solution, so thanks Kaaren for the idea, and thanks, Val for standing up for all of our children’s future on Parliament Hill today!

The event is being livestreamed here.

Meanwhile, here’s Robert Redford “Punching Back at Big Oil”

When you challenge Big Oil in Houston, you can bet the industry is going to punch back. So when I wrote in the Houston Chronicle earlier this month that we should say no to the Keystone XL pipeline, I wasn’t surprised when the project’s chief executive weighed in with a different view.

The corporate rejoinder, written by Alex Pourbaix, president for energy and oil pipelines for the TransCanada Corp., purported to cite “errors” in my oped. Let’s set the record straight, point by point.

First, the Keystone XL, as proposed, would run from Canada across the width of our country to Texas oil refineries and ports. It would carry diluted bitumen, a kind of crude oil, produced from the Alberta tar sands. On those points, we all agree.

I say this is a bad idea. It would put farmers, ranchers and croplands at risk across much of the Great Plains. It would feed our costly addiction to oil. And it would wed our future to the destructive production of tar sands crude. Click here to read the full article on RSN.org