Greenpeace Save the Arctic protest

Greenpeace activists demonstrate to save the Arctic from oil drilling

“Occupy” is a method used to describe civil disobedience used by activists to take over a location to demonstrate and disrupt non-violently. It’s been used many times since Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proved its efficacy.  Greenpeace is famous for their demonstrations on the high seas to intercept whaling ships and stop the Japanese from killing whales.  This time they are occupying a catwalk on the exterior portion of a Shell oil rig on its way to Alaska to drill for oil.

The occupiers are six Greenpeace activists from countries around the world — from Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Austria and the U.S. They boarded the rig about 750 miles northwest of Hawaii.

The group intends to stay “as long as it takes for Shell to get our message loud and clear that drilling in the Arctic is entirely unacceptable,” according to the Seattle Times.

Meet Aliyah, Jens, Zoe, Andreas, Miriam and Johno of Greenpeace, for they have scaled and occupied  the Polar Pioneer oil drilling rig to bring attention to saving the Arctic as pristine wilderness and not just another oil field to be plundered.

The six activists sped beside the rig aboard an inflatable raft, and then casted climbing lines to get aboard. They created a camp with tarps and hammocks on the tiny catwalk under the main deck.

---

Julia Hill life in a tree

“It’s chilly and a bit windy, but not terrible,” said Aliyah Field, a 27-year-old U.S. activist who spoke Monday to The Seattle Times from the rig. “It is rather beautiful.”

The drill rig is being transported to Seattle atop a heavy-lift vessel, the Blue Marlin.

If Shell is allowed to drill, it could be devastating with a 75 percent chance of an oil spill according to the US government’s own estimates.

You can watch the action live and show your support at: http://grnpc.org/IgDyX

The Sierra Club has also been outspoken against oil drilling in Alaska. Citing President Barack Obama when he said, "we can't just drill our way out of the energy and climate challenge we face." The environmental group believes curbing oil drilling is especially clear in America’s Arctic where warming is at twice the pace of the rest of the planet.

The loss of sea ice puts polar bears, whales and migratory birds at extreme risk. Even worse, oil corporations want to drill in the Arctic's Polar Bear Seas, which would double the threat to wildlife and particularly polar bears.

Sign the petition here on the Sierra Club website to stand up for the Arctic and our climate, and say “NO” to drilling in America's Arctic.

Unconventional means and people are many times portrayed as extremists or radicals who are misguided.  And some might say civil disobedience fits into that category, but history has shown  that non-violent means have longevity and the ability to focus attention on an issue for days, weeks, and even years.

This writer is reminded of a woman in California who garnered national acclaim in 1997 when she occupied a tree for two years to focus attention on the loss of the California Redwoods.

Characterized as a tree-hugging radical, Julia “Butterfly” Hill is a well-known environmental activist and writer, best-known for her two-year long “tree-sit” occupation of a 200-foot tall old growth redwood tree in Humboldt County, California to save it from being cut down by loggers.

Hill wrote about her life and 2 year tree occupation in “The Legacy of Luna.”  The following is short excerpt:

“On December 10, 1997, when I was 23, I climbed into the canopy of a thousand-year-old redwood tree named Luna to try to save her life and to help make the world aware of the plight of ancient forests. From my perch 180 feet above the ground, I was able to see the Pacific Lumber mill where redwoods are turned into lumber. I could see the Eel River swollen with mud from deforested slopes. I could see the town of Stafford that was destroyed by a mud slide caused by PL’s/Maxxam clear-cutting practices.

When I lived in the branches of Luna, I withstood El Nino storms, helicopter logging that ravaged the forest canopy, and the tremendous sorrow of witnessing the family of trees surrounding Luna cut to the ground. Each time a chain saw cut through those trees, I felt it cut through me as well. It was like watching my family being killed. And just as we lose a part of ourselves with the passing of a family member or friend, so I lost a part of myself with each fallen tree.”

A resolution was reached in 1999 when the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve Luna and all trees within a 200-foot buffer zone.  In exchange, Hill agreed to stop occupying the tree. In addition, the $50,000 that Hill and other activists raised during the cause was given to the logging company, as stipulated by the resolution. The $50,000 Earth First! paid to Pacific Lumber was then donated to Humboldt State University as part of the agreement for research into sustainable forestry.

The Greenpeace activists will most likely not be occupying the oil rig for as long as Hill perched atop the Redwood tree, but their cause is no less immediate or strident.  One of the most important accomplishments of Hill in addition to saving some California Redwood giants is showing non-violent civil disobedience is effective.  The outcome proved disparate sides can mediate, reconcile and reach amicable solutions without loss of life or property.   

Resources
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/greenpeace-activists-board-shell-oil-rig-headed-to-seattle/
Green Peace email from Claire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Butterfly_Hill

---