Anjali Appadurai from Sierra Club B.C. and the Padma Centre for Climate Justice spoke on the webinar episode about the global climate movement and organizing against climate change, and what this pipeline’s impact on Canada’s commitment on greenhouse gas emissions and the global South.

Anjali’s family comes from Humble Nadu, a state in India’s southernmost tip. The region is known for its fertile farmland and strong farming traditions, yet with British colonization the land was changed to be their textile colony, ultimately transforming India’s agricultural sector into cotton plantations, monoculture lands. Coupled with climate change impacts and intensified monsoon seasons, the lands where Anjali’s family is from have become exceptionally vulnerable. Anjali refers to the situation of her homelands as a “cocktail of climate impacts” with factors stemming from colonialism and neoliberal policies driving the crisis.

For Anjali, the movement to stop Trans Mountain is a familiar story, one tied into the broader logic of relentless extractives, growth and profit by way of land exploitation. Anjali shared how mega projects get pushed ahead with the full force and passion of the government because they represent a physical manifestation of the promise of the neoliberal system, which is that if you extract relentlessly then you grow endlessly.

Says Anjali:

“Our government refusing to take climate action or not meeting emissions reductions goals or building a pipeline in the middle of the climate crisis is directly impacting the most vulnerable people. Canada being one of the wealthiest countries in the world and being one of the least vulnerable to climate impacts has a much greater responsibility
in comparison with the rest of the world.”

You can watch and share the webinar episode with Anjali here:

Don’t miss an episode of this great webinar series: your chance to ask questions and dialogue with great Indigenous thinkers and leaders in the movement to stop TMX.