Summer has settled in with a vengeance. It is hot out there. On top of mind for many is global warming and as I was musing over what to write about for August and B.C. Day on August 7th, I was reminded of a local grass roots organization that was started in B.C. As a matter of fact, right here in Vancouver and only blocks away from the MPA Resource Centre. That’s right – “Greenpeace,” an internationally recognized environmental group.

In the late 1960’s the U.S. planned to explode a nuclear bomb off the coast of Alaska, under the island of Amchitka. 7,000 people blocked the Peace Arch Border Crossing holding signs reading “Don’t Make A Wave” and “It’s Your Fault if our Fault Goes” and “Stop! My Ark’s Not Finished.” They detonated the bomb anyway. No earthquake or tsunami occurred. The U.S. announced that they were going to detonate a bomb 5 times more powerful than the first and a greater opposition grew.

Jim Bohlen, a U.S. veteran, joined forces with Irving and Dorothy Stowe, who at the time, belonged to the Sierra Club in Canada. The Stowes’ were unhappy with the Sierra club’s lack of action. Irving Stowe was a believer in passive resistance, “bearing witness” where you protest simply by your presence. The “Don’t Make a Wave” Committee was formed in 1970 so that their actions would not be connected to the Sierra Club, who wanted no part of this group, despite the press linking them to the group. Early meetings were held in the Shaughnessy home of Robert and Bobbi Hunter but then moved to the Stowe home at 2775 Courtenay St. Which became the hub of the organization in 1969 and where the first Greenpeace meetings were held.

The first official office was in the backroom of a store on Cypress and W Broadway. Six months later, the office had moved to an upstairs space at 4^th and Maple sharing with The Society Promoting Environmental Conservation. By the way I also just saw the new movie “Oppenheimer” also timely.

Kitsilano was an area where many folks from the U.S. came that didn’t want to fight in the Vietnam War, as the draft was happening at the time. The “Hippie Culture” was flourishing. It was a time of free love and revolution. A childhood friend of my Dads “dropped out” so to speak from his family business and was seen selling sand candles at 4^th and Vine. OH, but I digress. “Those were the days my friend I thought they’d never end….” for all you young folks that is from a song by Mary Hopkin from 1968. Now that is not a digression but a little music trivia. Okay maybe a little digression.

Well, I can’t write without a mention of the full moons in August. That is right moons, (not a typo). Both are super moons which means they are the closest full moons for the year. When there are two full moons in one month the second is called a blue moon (August 30^th). The first is August 1^st and is the Wsanec Coho Moon. This is the time the Coho returns to earth. The picture of the Coho Moon is illustrated by the face of the Coho and is also human. This reminds the Saanich Peoples that the coho were once human. Depending on where indigenous peoples have settled, the full moons are called by different names depending on what nature is communicating. For instance, around the Great Lakes the Algonquin called the August full moon the Sturgeon Moon as this was the best time to catch sturgeon in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. Oh my, I have gone on haven’t I?