Earth activist Reverend Billy prepping to preach in Vancouver

If you haven't seen his YouTube videos, perhaps you've seen him preaching anti-consumer, anti-corporate, pro-Earth messaging from a sidewalk somewhere in the five boroughs of New York City or shouting about climate change from the waves by Coney Island.

Everywhere Reverend Billy goes he seems to captivate his audience with powerful statements of, "Earthalujah!" and “Monsanto is the devil!"

Today the renowned activist — senior pastor of the famous Church of Stop Shopping — is bringing his flair and enthusiasm to Vancouver, B.C. as the first stop in Canada on a North American tour promoting his new book, The Earth Wants You. The short publication is a motivational handbook meant to inspire the reader to challenge consumerism, racism, and militarism during a time of climate fluctuation and global economic struggle through direct action.

"We simply need to rise up with the Earth," Reverend Billy told National Observer. "The Earth is a living thing and we're getting straight messaging from the super storms, the floods, and the fires. That is something the Church of Stop Shopping prays to."

The Church of Stop Shopping, the reverend, and his Stop Shopping choir have been working around the globe for more than a decade, giving radical performances on issues like earth justice and gentrification. Billy — whose real name is William Talen — has since become legend for his preacher-style lectures while opening for Neil Young in Vancouver last year, parading Occupy Wall Street, and impersonating the extinct golden toad with the choir at a climate change protest in his home base of NYC.

He has been arrested dozens of times — and charged criminally only once for spreading the word at an American Starbucks.

"We must take responsibility for life," he said simply. "Lifealujah! The air, the water and the soil are being poisoned by governments and corporations, and we must reclaim it. The Earth is instructing us to."

A brief delay at the Washington border didn't dampen his spirits on the way to Vancouver, where the reverend is looking forward to launching his book in Canada. His tour has already made stops in several major cities along the U.S. West Coast, and eventually, will make its way to eastern Canada. To see him live in Vancouver during his tour, visit Banyen Books & Sound in Vancouver today at 6:30 p.m.