Vancouver’s progressive Earth Day celebration

On a sunny April 22, thousands marched to Vancouver’s Earth Day celebrations at Commercial Drive’s Grandview Park.

The message of preserving our Earth’s environment was not limited to the large numbers of socially active youth presenting speeches. Entire families held homemade signs with messaging ranging from ending our use of single use plastics to stopping BC’s Northern Gateway Pipeline. Green Peace, Forest Ethics, and Science World worked with children to make crafts out of ordinary recycled goods and built awareness of the importance and sensitivities of our environment and interconnected ecosystem.

Mayor Gregor Robertson spoke of his goal of building Vancouver as the world’s greenest city by 2020. He was followed by Vancouver Parks Board member Niki Sharma, who took a strong stance against Kinder Morgan’s BC oil transportation program.

The vast majority of environmental issues revolved around the unpopular anti-tanker and oil transportation projects being put forward by the Conservative government.

When interviewed, one participant stated, “An important lesson to take home is that we are all consumers but we have a duty to make sure the products we use every day are constructed and handled in a responsible manner.”

Earth Day has truly been a vehicle for change for many Vancouverites.