AYN to hold youth leadership conference later this year
Get ready for an exciting travel and networking opportunity! The Arctic Youth Network is currently looking for energetic youth from the Circumpolar North to participate in our second annual youth leadership conference.
More details about this event, as well as appplication forms, are available at our Leadership Conference 2006 page.
Arctic Indigenous Alliance to take stand against northern pipeline development
For the past few years the Arctic Indigenous Alliance has been trying to organize and gather voices in opposition to the proposed Mackenzie Gas Pipeline in the Canadian Western Arctic.
To give some brief history on the issue, this proposed development will spread across 2200 miles of pristine Arctic land as yet untouched in North America, to deliver 37 trillion cubic feet of natural gas within 2 pipelines to fuel the Athabasca Tar Sands Oil Development in Northern Alberta. For most people, there is no knowledge out there that the tar sands development is and will be the dirtiest and most destructive oil development known, and that it will contribute devastatingly to more global climate change and impact the face of the Arctic. The reason for this development is that Canada needs to maintain its duties under the North American Free Trade Agreement for being the #1 importer of oil and gas to the USA, and not everyone knows that it's not the Middle East that supplies the USA but Canada.
In the next few weeks there will be a sponsored event at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival that will be held in the Mall in Washington, DC. One of the main exhibits will highlight the "productiveness" of the oil and gas industry in Alberta. They will be showcasing how the Tar Sands will be a good thing for the economy, for international relations between the United States and Canada, and of course to benefit the oil corporations more. This exhibit will be a sponsored event by governments and big oil groups, and will take place between the dates of June 30th to July 11th, 2006. You can be assured they will NOT mention the environmental impact and human impact this will entail to the Arctic and importantly, to the world.
At the same time, leadership bodies within the Canadian governments and pro-developers will be lobbying congress for support and will be conducting sponsored events at the Canadian Embassy. We are in a position where we can make a strong stand and raise the issue of climate change to the next level.
By looking at dates and availabilities of some key action members, the dates that we are looking at for demonstrations will be July 5-7th.
The Arctic Indigenous Alliance and a number of other organizations including Oil Change International, Rainforest Action Network, and The Ruckus Society are supporting an action team to work in DC to voice the environmental and social concerns many have about oil and gas development in the north. There will be others from Alberta and the Arctic that will be going down to participate at a later date. The Arctic Indigenous Alliance is asking for your support by either participating with them at demonstration events in Washington or sending this message out to folks who can join them. This is very last minute but we are in need of strong allies willing to join us in our stand, especially from the International Indigenous Communities.
For more info, contact Elaine Alexie: lanelexy@mac.com
AYN attends the 2005 Sustainable Campuses Conference
Last fall, the Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC) of Canada invited AYN to send representatives to their annual Sustainable Campuses Conference held from September 29th to October 2nd, 2005.
Sustainable Campuses, one of SYC's flagship programs, is aimed at helping to make colleges and university campuses more sustainable. The conference allows students to increase their training in sustainability issues, and to network with various environment- and youth-focused organizations. The other SYC program, Community Youth Action, runs Youth Action Gatherings for high school students, to increase their awareness of social justice and environmental issues. At present, neither program has student participation from any of the three northern Territories.
During the conference, Katy Dillon and Jessica Thiessen of the ACYN steering committee were able to discuss with SYC ways in which the two organizations could interact. "The SYC has excellent programming and resources which don't currently have a home in the North," says Dillon. "AYN has the capacity to help these organizations expand into the North. There are three different colleges in northern Canada, and our population here is overwhelming children and youth. There is great potential for northern participation in SYC, and great potential for AYN to expand the message into other northern countries."
For more information, contact arcticyouth@gmail.com.