In the Belly of the Beast

We are in the “Belly of the Beast” here, as we cycle through busy city streets we are surrounded by the towering buildings of big oil; Shell, Esso, Husky and Encana to name a few. Our messaging will remain strong here, especially when it comes to the tar sands; Canada’s fastest growing source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Learn more about the tar sands and the role they are playing in Canada’s contribution to the climate crisis as well as their role in causing Canada’s shameful track record in international climate negotiations. We won the “Colossal Fossil Award” in Poznan last year. Shame.

Met up with the Pedal for the Planet Prairies and Yukon crew! Malkolm who has cycled all the way from Whitehorse in the Yukon, Jeh and Lisa from Edmonton and Nikita who has come out to be our driver are all in the city and we are set to cause a ruckus at Jim Prentice, our environment minister and Calgary MP’s, constituency office.

We arrive at the office; three climate action super cyclists, one Grim Reaper (the bearer of death), one unemployed wind turbine, 20 cyclists and activists and three media teams. We are ready to rock this! We gather outside and give some shorts speeches before heading into the office to ensure that our letter gets right onto Jim’s desk so he doesn’t miss it when he gets back from his canoe trip in the North. In the office, Jeh delivers the letter and then we proceed to really make some noise. One of Jim’s staffers isn’t too fond of us “Please keep the noise down, there are people on the phone with other constituencies” Jeh replies, “We just want to sing a song in your honour” and then we all start screaming… “ooh its hot in here! There’s too much carbon in the atmosphere! Take action! Take action! And get some satisfaction!” and then “when I say “Jim”, you say “where are you ?!” Jim! Where are you?! Jim! Where are you?!

It was pretty awesome, too bad Jim missed all the excitement.

That evening we gave a presentation at a community centre. Ourselves and Malkolm shared some photos and stories of the trip so far and then Alex from the Youth Delegation to Copenhagen shared his experiences last year in Poznan and further shed light on Canada’s embarrassing and detrimental role in international climate negotiations.