To highlight the consequences of the tar sands’ impacts on women and their communities, a delegation led by 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams begins Tuesday, touring the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline route through Alberta and British Colombia.

The Breaking Ground: Women, Oil & Climate Change delegation from the Nobel Women’s Initiative aims to show the “perspectives rarely taken into account by decision makers” by gathering and amplyifying the voices of women who will suffer from tar sands and climate change impacts.

“As peacebuilders and community leaders, women around the world have been at the forefront of movements to reduce the impacts of climate change and build healthy, sustainable environments,” the group writes.

Describing the importance of the campaign, Williams says that “while people look at environmental issues, people look at climate change… very few look at it from the perspective of women. And unfortunately, like in too many situations of crisis around the world, the women and their children are the ones who suffer the most when their environment is destroyed.”

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Environmental Groups Sue Canada Over Northern Gateway Pipeline

by Common Dreams – http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/27-6

27 September 2012

Canadian environmental groups joined together on Tuesday to sue the Canadian government over what they say is a failure to make good on legal obligations to protect endangered species by pursuing the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project.

The groups, which include Ecojustice, David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace Canada, Sierra Club B.C., Wilderness Committee and Wildsight filed the litigation in federal court in Vancouver, B.C on Tuesday.

“Delay threatens the survival of our endangered wildlife. That’s why the deadlines in SARA for producing recovery strategies are mandatory,” said Sean Nixon, staff lawyer with Ecojustice. “SARA is a good law that could help endangered species recover. The real problem is that the federal government won’t implement it.”

The endangered species mentioned in the suit include the Pacific humpback whale, Nechako white sturgeon, marbled murrelet and southern mountain caribou, all of which have fragile habitats along the proposed pipeline and shipping routes.

The Northern Gateway Pipeline, proposed by Enbridge Inc., which plans to transport Canadian crude oil through twin pipelines running from Bruderheim, Alberta, to Kitimat, British Columbia, has seen major push back from environmental groups and First Nations Tribes, as the pipeline is slated to cut through sensitive environmental areas and First Nations’ lands.

Over 80 community, union, business and First Nation leaders announced plans earlier this month for a mass sit in at the British Columbia legislature to protest the proposed tar sands pipeline. Organizers are calling for the Oct. 22 action to be the “biggest act of civil disobedience” on the tarsands issue in Canada to date.