‘It's going to be bigger than Clayoquot Sound'

[quote]'It's going to be bigger than Clayoquot Sound'

The looming fight over the Great Bear Rainforest will once again put B.C. at ground zero of the global environment movement

It is because of accidents like that, and the dark spectre of the Exxon Valdez disaster which still haunts the West Coast, that Premier Gordon Campbell finds himself on a collision course with a powerful coalition of aboriginal groups over a proposed multibillion-dollar pipeline.

Although first nations are fighting several big resource projects in British Columbia, the conflict over the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is developing into an overarching issue that is about to thrust the province into the international spotlight.

"It's going to be bigger than Clayoquot Sound," predicted Vicky Husband, who has been one of B.C.'s leading environmental voices for the past 30 years.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., described the 1993 fight to stop clear-cut logging in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island as "the flashpoint in one of the defining environmental battles of our time." Ms. Husband says the Enbridge dispute may be the defining battle for a new generation concerned about climate change and global dependence on oil.

"When you think of the optics of this - first nations fighting to stop oil tankers from penetrating the Great Bear Rainforest carrying dirty crude from the tar sands - it's not going to be hard to draw support from Europe and all around the world," she said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/its-going-to-be-bigger-than-clayoquot-sound/article1514573/?cid=olym10[/quote]