Earth Day for an Oil-Free Coast

Robert Bateman headlines Sidney Earth Day Event

Raincoast is working to inform communities about the risk to the Salish Sea from Kinder Morgan’s proposed tar sands pipeline and oil tanker project. For Earth Day 2014 we’ve teamed up with the Sierra Club BC to bring you an evening of inspiration and entertainment. Hear renowned artist Robert Bateman, Chief Vern Jacks of the Tseycum First Nation, biologist Andy Rosenberger of Raincoast and Sierra Club campaigner Caitlyn Vernon.

Earth Day for an Oil-Free Coast Event Details

6-9pm, April 22, 2014, at the Mary Winspear Centre, Sidney
Admission by Donation

A future for the southern resident killer whales?

Raincoast has been accepted as an intervenor in the National Energy Board’s review of Kinder Morgan’s proposal. One focus of our evidence will be the southern resident killer whale population. Kinder Morgan’s own assessment identifies the potential impact on killer whales from tanker traffic to be “high magnitude, high probability and significant”.

Our evidence to the panel will include a population viability analysis of the southern residents. This will assess the likelihood of their survival given increasing noise and disturbance from shipping, food supply and contaminant stress, and heightened oil spill risk. The need for an updated viability assessment highlights the sobering fact we could lose these whales. Even without an oil spill, these 82 whales face an uphill battle. Raincoast has an international team of experts lined up to help us carry out our assessment. We currently stand $20,000 short of the funding required to carry out this work.

Help support this project by donating now.

Are you directly affected?

Many Canadians recently received notification from the NEB that they could not participate in the Kinder Morgan review. To lend those who have been excluded from the review process a voice, Raincoast is collaborating with two Vancouver film makers on a documentary called ‘Directly Affected, Voices for our Coast’. The story will celebrate our shared cultural connections to the Salish Sea and the wide spectrum of people working to protect it.

Please take a look at our pitch and vote to help us tell this important story.

You can help

Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.

We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.