This summary was written by 11-year-old Gabo who visited Haida Gwaii with his parents this summer. He was one of 50+ people who attended Riki’s presentation at Queen B’s on August 15.

“The talk by Riki Ott was very good. I got a front row seat so I could see all the diagrams on the computer. When she started I felt like she was talking about what I knew…I was wrong! Enbridge was much worse than I thought. And spills are worse than I thought. In the Gulf of Mexico, toxic dispersants were used to clean up a leak. You don’t use toxic chemicals to clean up — that just makes things worse. And the dispersants just pull the oil under the surface so it looks good. Then the media leaves because the problem is not visible. Dispersants evaporate and when it rains thousands of people get sick. The symptoms are like nose and ear bleeds, brain fog, and that sort of thing. When they go to the doctor, the doctor doesn’t know what it is and can’t treat it because the oil companies are not saying what is in the chemicals. The chemicals destroy even the community. The Enbridge spill in Kalamazoo was very similar. People have gotten sick because of the bitumen. It is deadly and must be stopped. It is not possible to clean it up, it won’t work. That will happen to Canada and we are totally obvlivious. Except it will be worse because it will be in Haida Gwaii which has the lowest carbon footprint in BC and such an awesome ecological system.”

Riki’s recommended links:

http://www.earthisland.org/

http://movetoamend.org/

http://www.peacefuluprising.org/