OPSEU brings green resolutions to NUPGE Convention
June 9, 2010 OPSEU will be bringing three
green resolutions to the upcoming NUPGE Convention. Addressing
the environmental concerns about the tar sands, responsibility
on the issue of climate debt and the safety of drinking water,
OPSEU’s concern for the planet will be brought to the floor at
the June 18-20 Convention in Vancouver. The text of the
resolutions is included below.
Tar sands
WHEREAS extraction of oil from the Alberta tar
sands is responsible for one of the largest environmental
disasters of the last hundred years;
WHEREAS the federal and Alberta governments have
failed to enforce the regulation of tar sand operations —
including water diversions, toxic pollution, and leaking
tailings ponds — and failed to implement legislation to reduce
acid rain;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT NUPGE in
consultation with its Alberta affiliate, launch an effort to
inform its members specifically about the environmental damage
caused by the Alberta Tar Sands development and to educate the
public further about the environmental development of the tar
sands.
Climate debt
WHEREAS irrefutable science shows that climate
change is undermining our planet’s health;
WHEREAS wealthier nations and corporations are
the largest contributors to climate change;
WHEREAS poorer countries are much less
responsible for climate change and the least equipped to recover
from major environmental disasters such as floods and draughts;
WHEREAS wealthier nations and corporations, as
climate change perpetrators over many generations, are indebted
to those, particularly in the south, who are suffering on many
fronts from the crisis of climate change;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT NUPGE will:
- lobby the federal and provincial
governments to publicly acknowledge the existence of climate
debt;
- demand that the federal government support
international calls for interest free reparation payments to
poorer countries suffering from climate change;
- commit to a program of education among its
affiliates and the community to create awareness of the issue of
climate debt.
Drinking water safety
WHEREAS safe and accessible drinking water is
essential to human life;
WHEREAS the privatization of water threatens
access to public water:
WHEREAS plastic water bottles are responsible
for environmental damage:
WHEREAS bottled water is an unregulated product;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT NUPGE will
actively urge all of its members to use public rather than
private drinking water; and lobby the provincial and federal
governments to implement regulations for the safety and
environmental impact of bottled water.
