Activists Dangle From Oregon Bridge for 2nd Day to Protest
Arctic Drilling
Activists protesting Shell’s Arctic aspirations dangled
from the St. Johns Bridge in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday.
Some of the 13 activists from Greenpeace are providing live
updates from their swaying bivouacs beneath the St. Johns Bridge, where they
unfurled banners and stayed roped together to form a blockade as helpers on the
bridge lowered supplies in sacks.
According to the
Greenpeace blog, the icebreaker
Fennica leased by Shell was prevented on Wednesday from joining the rest of the
drilling fleet in the Arctic. Unless it does so, the company will be unable to
proceed with drilling in the Chukchi Sea. The vessel is carrying a piece of
equipment that is used to cap an oil well in the event of a
blowout.
A Shell spokesman,
Curtis Smith, told The Associated Press: “As for
the activities of the day, we respect the choice that anyone might make to
protest based on Shell’s Arctic aspirations; we just ask that they do so safely
and within the boundaries of the law.
On Thursday
morning, the icebreaker started moving toward the bridge, with Coast Guard
vessels nearby, and then retreated. The activists cleared out of the way for a
barge, unrelated to the protest, to pass through.
The protest against Shell’s Arctic
drilling plans in Portland follows another in Washington State, where protesters,
some in kayaks, helped muster public pressure to seek a delay of the mooring of
Shell’s rigs.
It is not clear how long the activists
can sustain their midair protest site over the Willamette River. Kayakers have
been working in shifts, Daphne Wysham, a member of the group, told The Oregonian.
The executive director of Greenpeace
USA, Annie Leonard, said in an interview at the start of the protest that the
bridge danglers and the kayakers were a “line of defense.”
“And these
activists, in the air and on water, are right now the last thing that stands
between Shell Oil and its absolutely pathological plans to drill for oil in the
Arctic this summer,” she said in an interview with Democracy Now!
Activists in Oregon Suspend Themselves from Bridge to
Block Arctic-Bound Oil Ship Video by Democracy
Now!
A spokesman for
the local sheriff’s office, Lt. Steve Alexander, said on Wednesday in The
Oregonian that the authorities were there in case anyone fell from the bridge
and to keep the river navigable.
Videos posted by
Greenpeace USA show sacks of supplies being lowered to the dangling
activists.
On a Reddit forum, the activists
described some of the conditions, such as how they prepared for the heat of 100
degrees Fahrenheit: with long-sleeve shirts, sunscreen, shade and water. They
are also posting images and updates on Twitter from the protest via #ShellNo of
the view from their suspended sites. 
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