Activities

What do we do with a summer like this one?

The West Coast pipeline is moving toward approval. Years of environmental protections are being rolled back, one at a time and astonishingly fast. Tariffs are stoking a fear of their own, and the news cycle rarely lets up.

It would be reasonable to feel that none of this is within our control. And here is one thing you can do.

On August 1, the federal government opened a public comment period on whether to designate the West Coast Oil Pipeline a project of national interest, fast-tracking it past the usual environmental review. The notice arrived during a summer that needed no more bad news: the same weekend it was published, more than five thousand British Columbians were under evacuation orders, as wildfires burned across the province.

The comment period closes September 18. It is a real, legally required step, and it becomes part of the public record no matter what the government decides.

We are asking members of the ORCIE community to send a comment: not a form letter, a few honest paragraphs, in your own words, about why this decision matters to you.

It takes about 20 minutes. Read one section of our short guide, choose the argument that speaks to you most, and write. The guide walks through the five legal factors the government has to weigh. For anyone who wants the deeper context on the public money already behind this industry, our backgrounder on fossil fuel subsidies is here: Care for Creation, Not Extraction: Understanding why Canada must end fossil fuel subsidies.

We will not undo years of policy in thirty-one days, and that is not the point. This fight is made of moments like this one: small, bounded, ours to join. What we can offer is public witness: dissent, spoken plainly, put on the record, whatever the government decides. That, too, is faithfulness.
 

Guide to public comments on listing the West Coast Oil Pipeline as a project of national interest in ENGLISH and FRENCH.

These processes of financialization replace government responsibility and regulation with the transfer of authority over natural resources to the private sector. This is most often accomplished by government deregulation or privatization. But large international institutions have been more than willing to turn nature into “an asset class,” in effect bringing nature into the market—where, of course, market experts take control.

Private money streaming into the green economy has “exploded” (pg. 39). According to the UN Environment Programme, private finance for nature surged elevenfold in four years, from US$9.4 billion in 2020 to US$102 billion in 2024 (pg. 40).

How this is done is described in Chapter 2. We know that 69 of the top 100 economies of the world by revenue are not countries but transnational corporations. As they search for “carbon neutrality” or “net‑zero” emissions claims to protect their brand while nevertheless maintaining current operations, several strategies exist for them to invest in “green bonds,” “carbon offsets,” or “ecosystem services” that often result in greenwashing or even “carbon neocolonialism” (pg. 63).

What could possibly go wrong?

In the name of protecting the environment, in many instances, community control is redirected, or lost entirely. Indigenous communities are particularly affected when states turn over ancestral territories to asset managers or sovereign wealth funds (to promote, as the Carney federal government like to say, “Projects of National Interest”). There are many examples of these schemes providing little to no results – especially not to protection of the 1 million species that now face extinction in our world (pg. 140).

Earth for Sale provides several examples of “false carbon solutions”—the same warning raised by the Catholic Churches of the Global South in their recent manifestos (see A Just Transition: The Global South Churches’ Call for Climate Justice and Participation – The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology). Our recent advocacy efforts reveal how these same “false solutions” approach take shape on the ground. Several ORCIE members participated in the UN’s Biodiversity COP15 in Montreal in December 2022, where we—alongside many other organizations—advocated for a cap on plastic production. Yet no global plastics treaty has been achieved, even as companies have turned to the use of “plastic offsets.” Likewise, ORCIE worked in coalition with half-dozen faith-based organizations during the 2025 Turn Debt into Hope campaign. While this effort did not result in debt cancellation for countries of the Global South, “debt‑for‑nature swaps” (pg. 133; 149) have become increasingly prevalent.

As Barlow notes, several major conservation organizations—including The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and the World Resources Institute—have partnered with the same financial actors advancing these market‑based environmental “solutions”.

Conclusion

In the afterword of Earth for Sale, we read: “You put your hand out to touch the universe in a way that you can affect it, however small that may feel to you. But – and this is important – you must have faith that many others around the world are doing the same, even though you cannot know who they all are or what they are contributing. Hope requires action; action requires hope. Both require faith in a larger good.”

Maude Barlow, and her writings, provide hope, faith and compel us to action.

Questions to Deepen Our Collective Reflection

To help guide your preparation for the June 25 online book launch and discussion, here are some questions you may find helpful to consider asking the author.

• Is there a place for the private sector to play positive roles in the search for shared solutions to the environmental crisis? If so, what might good practices look like?
• What are the best practices that prevent congregational investments from being unwittingly used by asset managers in the financialization of nature?
• At the UN’s Climate COP26 in 2021, 40 countries agreed to phase out coal‑fired power. By COP28 in 2024, nearly 200 countries committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels. Building on this momentum, COP30 helped catalyze the first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, held in Santa Marta, Colombia, where 57 countries named the root causes of the climate crisis and the political and economic systems—including trade and investment treaties—that perpetuate it. In light of these developments, where can meaningful progress still be made in international forums for change?
• If (as reported on page 186) two‑thirds of climate damage is created by just 10% of the population, what steps must be taken to “decarbonize the rich”?
• One of your favourite quotes seems to be Martin Luther King Jr.’s: “It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.” What laws do we need to see passed in Canada to restrain the financialization of nature?
• In your 2022 book Still Hopeful: Lessons From a Life of Activism, you wrote that one of the lessons learned was to “go to the heart of the human story to touch hearts as well as minds if you want to get people out of their silos” (pg. 59). With that in mind, can you share some of the stories that moved you so deeply that they led you to write Earth for Sale?

The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology (ORCIE) warmly invites you to a special book‑launch and discussion with renowned author and activist Maude Barlow on Thursday, June 25 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT).

Together, we will learn from her newest publication, Earth for Sale: The Fight to Stop the Last Plunder of the Planet—a compelling and timely call to protect the global commons and safeguard our shared future.

About the Book

In Earth for Sale, Maude Barlow introduces us to the growing trend of “financializing nature”—the new commercialization of the commons. She documents how corporate interests are increasingly shaping the governance of land, water, forests, and biodiversity, and why efforts to protect nature must not be handed over to private actors driven by profit. Her analysis invites us to reflect deeply on what it means to defend the integrity of Earth’s systems in an era of accelerating ecological and economic pressures.

What to Expect

The program will offer a thoughtful blend of reflection, Maude Barlow’s lecture, and an engaging conversation with participants, inviting us to consider the urgent questions raised in the book. Please note that the event will be in English only.

Prepare for the Conversation

To prepare for ORCIE’s June 25, 2026, online discussion with Maude, we encourage everyone to read Earth for Sale – but if that is not possible by then, participants may appreciate this quick review of the issues that Maude is encouraging us to understand and mobilize around: Protecting Our Common Home: ORCIE’s Reflections on Earth for Sale

You can order Earth for Sale here:
https://ecwpress.com/products/earth-for-sale

Join Us

We hope you will join us for this vital conversation as we reflect on how best to protect our common home and ensure that decisions about nature serve people and planet alike. All are welcome!

REGISTER HERE: Meeting Registration – Zoom

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Ottawa, May 28, 2026. It is with deep sorrow that we learned of the passing of Carl Hétu — a friend, respected leader, and long-time partner in the movement for social justice and global solidarity. ORCIE joins Development and Peace – Caritas Canada in mourning his loss while also celebrating the remarkable life he lived.

Carl’s lifelong commitment to justice, peace, and dignity for all deeply inspired our work. It was a privilege for ORCIE to collaborate with him and our partners through the Turn Debt Into Hope campaign. Together, and now in his memory, we remain committed to challenging unjust systems and advancing new models of development that uphold the well-being of people and the planet.

Carl strengthened our collective work through his vision, his collaborative spirit, and his unwavering dedication to dialogue and to the empowerment of the most marginalized. His legacy will continue to guide and inspire our efforts toward the common good.

As Carl enters the communion of saints, we say with one voice: ¡Presente! May his courage, leadership, and hope live on in all of us.

In hope and solidarity,
The ORCIE Team