[rad-green] 42 Nobel Laureates Urge Trudeau to Act With 'Moral Clarity' and Stop Climate-Wrecking Teck Frontier Mine

*https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/21/42-nobel-laureates-urge-trudeau-act-moral-clarity-and-stop-climate-wrecking-teck
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/21/42-nobel-laureates-urge-trudeau-act-moral-clarity-and-stop-climate-wrecking-teck>Common
Dreams          February 21, 202042 Nobel Laureates Urge Trudeau to Act
With 'Moral Clarity' and Stop Climate-Wrecking Teck Frontier Mine"Projects
that enable fossil fuel growth at this moment in time are an affront to our
state of climate emergency, and the mere fact that they warrant debate in
Canada should be seen as a disgrace."by Jessica Corbett, staff writer*

[image: Crudeau Oil protest]

*Greenpeace activists unfurl banners after building a wood and card 'oil
pipeline' outside the Canadian High Commission, Canada House, to protest
against the Trudeau government's plans to build an oil pipeline in British
Columbia on April 18, 2018 in London. (Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty
Images)*

In an open letter
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/21/nobel-prize-winners-justin-trudeau-teck-frontier-mine>
to
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia
Freeland, 42 Nobel laureates implored the federal government to "act with
the moral clarity required" to tackle the global climate crisis and stop
Teck Resources' proposed
<https://www.teck.com/operations/canada/projects/frontier-project/frontier-project>
Frontier
tar sands mine.

"The importance of leadership in the coming few years cannot be
understated," reads the letter, published Friday in the *Guardian*'s
opinion section. "Governments are lagging scandalously behind
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/21/the-governments-sudden-passion-for-climate-technology-is-newfound-and-insincere>
what science demands, and what a growing and powerful people-powered
movement knows is necessary."

"There is enough carbon embedded in already operating oil, gas, and
coalfields and mines to take us beyond 2°C, let alone 1.5°C," the letter
continues, referencing key temperature targets of the 2015 Paris climate
accord. "The implications of this are clear: there is no room for expansion
of the fossil fuel sector. There is no room for the Teck Frontier tar sands
mine
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/05/when-it-comes-to-climate-hypocrisy-canadas-leaders-have-reached-a-new-low>
."

Projects that enable fossil-fuel growth at this moment in time are an
affront to our state of climate emergency, and the mere fact that they
warrant debate in Canada should be seen as a disgrace." #RejectTeck
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/RejectTeck?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#Imagine2050
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Imagine2050?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
https://t.co/BVactubGSX

— 350 Canada (@350Canada) February 21, 2020
<https://twitter.com/350Canada/status/1230889418786885632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

According to the letter:

Projects that enable fossil fuel growth at this moment in time are an
affront to our state of climate emergency, and the mere fact that they
warrant debate in Canada <https://www.theguardian.com/world/canada> should
be seen as a disgrace. They are wholly incompatible with your government's
recent commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. And with
clear infringements on First Nations rights, such projects fly in the face
of rhetoric and purported efforts towards reconciliation.

The response to the climate crisis will define and destroy legacies in the
coming years, and the qualifications for being on the right side of history
are clear: an immediate end to fossil fuel financing and expansion along
with an ambitious and just transition away from oil and gas production
towards zero carbon well before mid-century.

Signatories to the letter are from all around the world and have received
Nobel prizes in chemistry, economics, literature, medicine, peace, and
physics dating back to 1973. They include Canadian author Alice Munro,
awarded a literature prize in 2013, and Canadian biologist Jack W. Szostak,
awarded a medicine prize in 2009.

The tar sands project, first proposed in 2011, has pitted environmentalists
in Canada and across the globe against conservatives in Alberta, where the
mine could create thousands of jobs while  producing
<https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/01/20/bc-and-alberta-indigenous-leaders-demonstrate-against-major-oilsands-project.html>
about
260,000 barrels of oil daily and four million tons of climate-heating
emissions annually. Trudeau's cabinet is expected to weigh in sometime this
month.

The world is watching @JustinTrudeau
<https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> and @CAFreeland
<https://twitter.com/cafreeland?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>! Over 40 @NobelPrize
<https://twitter.com/NobelPrize?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> Laureates are calling
on you to #RejectTeck
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/RejectTeck?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>, the
largest tar sands mine proposal EVER. #cdnpoli
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
https://t.co/JT03b5JkE4

— Oil Change International (@PriceofOil) February 21, 2020
<https://twitter.com/PriceofOil/status/1230840271111360513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

"Teck still hasn't committed to building Frontier if it's approved,"
*Bloomberg* reported
<https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/markets/trudeau-e2-80-99s-in-a-bind-over-an-oil-sands-mine-that-might-never-get-built/ar-BBZVdot>
last
week. "The Vancouver-based company's current focus is on advancing the
project through the regulatory process, and further decisions will depend
on the outcome of that process, market conditions, and other
considerations, said Chris Stannell, a Teck spokesman."

Although Trudeau often presents himself as committed
<https://apnews.com/e294259c977f412cb5ebf24dfc961bbe>to addressing the
climate crisis, the Liberal prime minister and his government have been
criticized for decisions that conflict with scientists' warnings that the
world must rapidly move to 100% renewable energy to avert climate
catastrophe. One such decision was the Trudeau government buying
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/29/immense-moral-cowardice-trudeau-trashed-government-purchase-climate-killing-kinder>
the
Trans Mountain pipeline and long-delayed expansion project in 2018, which
Indigenous people and climate activists continue
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/05/we-will-continue-fight-protesters-vow-after-canadian-court-dismisses-indigenous>
to
challenge in court.

Among those opposed
<https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/rival-rallies-teck-frontier-mine-approval-ottawa-oilsands-calgary-protests-1.5436228>
to
the Frontier mine are leaders and members of Extinction Rebellion,
Indigenous Climate Action, the Tiny House Warriors, and the Union of
British Columbia Indian Chiefs, who have held
<https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/01/20/bc-and-alberta-indigenous-leaders-demonstrate-against-major-oilsands-project.html>
protests
aimed at pressuring the Canadian government to block the contested project.

Over 40 Nobel Laureates call on @JustinTrudeau
<https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> and @cafreeland
<https://twitter.com/cafreeland?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> to reject the largest
tar sands mine proposal EVER.
If built, it would further undermine Canada’s commitments to both climate
action and indigenous rights.#RejectTeck
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/RejectTeck?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
#CdnPoli <https://twitter.com/hashtag/CdnPoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
https://t.co/BFq7HHQHyK

— Global Witness (@Global_Witness) February 21, 2020
<https://twitter.com/Global_Witness/status/1230931456471523329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

"Ultimately, this mine will be so devastating to the climate, and we're in
a climate crisis," Extinction Rebellion member Sarah Flynn told
<https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/rival-rallies-teck-frontier-mine-approval-ottawa-oilsands-calgary-protests-1.5436228>
 *CBC News* in January, "so the short-term advantages of the jobs and the
income that this mine will offer will be far outweighed by the climate
devastation that the whole world will experience."

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs told
<https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/01/20/bc-and-alberta-indigenous-leaders-demonstrate-against-major-oilsands-project.html>
 the *Toronto Star* last month that Trudeau should "walk the walk" of
transitioning to a green economy. Phillip noted that "there were
commitments made during the last election that the Trudeau government would
make decisive moves toward renewable energy and this is an opportunity to
follow through on those promises."

In an op-ed for the *Guardian* earlier this month, author and activist Bill
McKibben wrote
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/05/when-it-comes-to-climate-hypocrisy-canadas-leaders-have-reached-a-new-low>
that
"it's disturbing in a different way to watch leaders *pretend* to care—a
kind of gaslighting that can reduce you to numb nihilism. Trudeau, for all
his charms, doesn't get to have it both ways: if you can't bring yourself
to stop a brand-new tar sands mine then you're not a climate leader."

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