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TEDxOilSpill Vancouver Meetup: inspiring local and global transformation

Vancouver's first TEDxOilSpill Meetup group, held Monday, July 12th, brought together a group of seven people, most of us strangers, but all of us passionate and frustrated by the Deep Water Horizon disaster.

With pen and paper in hand and a willingness to discuss options, ideas and goals, the meeting began with some trepidation and concluded nearly 2 1/2 hours later with every member committed to creating Vancouver's first ever TEDxOilSpill ACTION Summit in the autumn of 2010.  Living on the Pacific Coast, we are all very aware of the potential for disasters along our coast lines. Our government has been discussing the implementation of off-shore drilling for some time and the general public is vehemently opposing this move and ready to take action.  In fact, a grassroots initiative called "NO Tanks" has been formed as a community resistance to the transfer of crude oil through British Columbia's waterways. It's gaining momentum, with a much-talked about future event being held on October 17th, 2010. 

After our first TEDxOilSpill meetup, we hope to gain information and insight into individuals, groups and communities that are taking direct action to assist in the clean-up of the Gulf, as well as those who have created innovative technologies to clean up oil from the Gulf, something that British Petroleum has yet to figure out.  We know there are people out there that are willing, able and passionate to instill transformation and demand action in the Gulf and around the world. 

We want to send a message to those in power that the people are ready for drastic change and that we are simply unwilling to continue functioning in the archaic ways.  As we are in the initial stages of development, we are looking to find people from interdisciplinary backgrounds who are interested in taking action with us in the fall to create the first TEDxOilSpill ACTION Summit in Vancouver. 

The most important word is ACTION.  We have talked and talked and now we want to implement change through showing instead of telling. 

The next meeting is being held this Friday, July 15th, 2010 from 5:00-6:00pm at Suite 401- 68 Water Street.  Please visit http://www.meetup.com/TEDxOilSpill/15228/ for further information and to post comments on the message board.

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