SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Activist Audrey Siegl faces off with Shell's Polar Pioneer drilling vessel on Wednesday, July 17, 2015.
(Photo: Greenpeace)
Showdown at Sea: Greenpeace Puts Boats and Bodies Between Shell and the Arctic
"If they are going to push past us, if they're going to continue on to the Arctic, they are not going to do it without opposition."
Jun 17, 2015
The people will not back down against drilling in the Arctic, whether by boat, raft, or by swimming through frigid northern waters.
That was the message Wednesday morning as about 30 environmental campaigners on Greenpeace vessels--including Musqueam First Nation activist Audrey Siegl, featured in a video on Tuesday preparing for the action--chased down oil giant Shell's Arctic drilling rig, the Polar Pioneer, as it moved past Vancouver Island toward its final destination in Alaskan waters.
Under the banner of People vs. Oil, several protesters jumped from a raft into the choppy ocean waves to block the path of the Polar Pioneer. Shell plans to drill for oil in the Arctic's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, which are home to numerous Indigenous communities and marine species.
According to Vancouver's CKNW news outlet, the protesters on the raft had a message for Shell:
What they're planning to do is really dangerous. It's bad for the Arctic. It's bad the coast and it's terrible for our climate. We cannot afford to extract the oil in the Arctic and burn it, according to all the latest climate science. If they are going to push past us, if they're going to continue on to the Arctic, they are not going to do it without opposition.
The swimmers included a Fijian activist named Victor Pickering. "For me, standing up to Shell is a personal struggle to protect my country's way of life, which will be further devastated by rising sea levels and a melting north pole," he said in a statement.
As of Wednesday morning, the Polar Pioneer had barreled down on the swimmers, forcing them to move out of the way, but two smaller boats of activists were still facing off with the vessel.
Follow the action on Twitter with the hashtags #PeopleVsOil and #ShellNo.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
arcticarctic drillingbig oilenvironmentfirst nationsfossil fuelsgreenpeacepeople powerprotestersshell
The people will not back down against drilling in the Arctic, whether by boat, raft, or by swimming through frigid northern waters.
That was the message Wednesday morning as about 30 environmental campaigners on Greenpeace vessels--including Musqueam First Nation activist Audrey Siegl, featured in a video on Tuesday preparing for the action--chased down oil giant Shell's Arctic drilling rig, the Polar Pioneer, as it moved past Vancouver Island toward its final destination in Alaskan waters.
Under the banner of People vs. Oil, several protesters jumped from a raft into the choppy ocean waves to block the path of the Polar Pioneer. Shell plans to drill for oil in the Arctic's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, which are home to numerous Indigenous communities and marine species.
According to Vancouver's CKNW news outlet, the protesters on the raft had a message for Shell:
What they're planning to do is really dangerous. It's bad for the Arctic. It's bad the coast and it's terrible for our climate. We cannot afford to extract the oil in the Arctic and burn it, according to all the latest climate science. If they are going to push past us, if they're going to continue on to the Arctic, they are not going to do it without opposition.
The swimmers included a Fijian activist named Victor Pickering. "For me, standing up to Shell is a personal struggle to protect my country's way of life, which will be further devastated by rising sea levels and a melting north pole," he said in a statement.
As of Wednesday morning, the Polar Pioneer had barreled down on the swimmers, forcing them to move out of the way, but two smaller boats of activists were still facing off with the vessel.
Follow the action on Twitter with the hashtags #PeopleVsOil and #ShellNo.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The people will not back down against drilling in the Arctic, whether by boat, raft, or by swimming through frigid northern waters.
That was the message Wednesday morning as about 30 environmental campaigners on Greenpeace vessels--including Musqueam First Nation activist Audrey Siegl, featured in a video on Tuesday preparing for the action--chased down oil giant Shell's Arctic drilling rig, the Polar Pioneer, as it moved past Vancouver Island toward its final destination in Alaskan waters.
Under the banner of People vs. Oil, several protesters jumped from a raft into the choppy ocean waves to block the path of the Polar Pioneer. Shell plans to drill for oil in the Arctic's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, which are home to numerous Indigenous communities and marine species.
According to Vancouver's CKNW news outlet, the protesters on the raft had a message for Shell:
What they're planning to do is really dangerous. It's bad for the Arctic. It's bad the coast and it's terrible for our climate. We cannot afford to extract the oil in the Arctic and burn it, according to all the latest climate science. If they are going to push past us, if they're going to continue on to the Arctic, they are not going to do it without opposition.
The swimmers included a Fijian activist named Victor Pickering. "For me, standing up to Shell is a personal struggle to protect my country's way of life, which will be further devastated by rising sea levels and a melting north pole," he said in a statement.
As of Wednesday morning, the Polar Pioneer had barreled down on the swimmers, forcing them to move out of the way, but two smaller boats of activists were still facing off with the vessel.
Follow the action on Twitter with the hashtags #PeopleVsOil and #ShellNo.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.