On April 20th, communities marked the 1-year anniversary of the start of the Gulf Oil spill. Across North America and as far as Helsinki and Wellington the destruction wrought by BP, Halliburton, TransOcean, and a complacent government was not just remembered, but resisted.
Equally important, Rising Tiders and our allies demonstrated to communities, energy companies, and government agencies that it’s not just this oil spills, but the toxic coal pollution, gruesome tar sands pits, the poisons of natural gas fracking, and many other types of extraction that poison people and the planet that must come to an end. A wrap up video is below:
This is just a partial list of communities that marked the anniversary with action:
Athens, GA; Biloxi, MS; Chicago, IL; Fort Worth, TX; Gizborne, New Zealand; Helsinki, Finland; Hood River, OR; Ithaca, NY; Kalamazoo, MI; London, ON; London, UK (multiple actions); Moscow, Idaho; New Orleans, LA; New Plymouth, New Zealand; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Vancouver, BC; Victoria, Australia; Washington, DC (multiple actions); and Wellington, New Zealand.
Below are some photographic highlights! If you missed the day of action, there’s no better time then the present to get involved with the Rising Tide – a summer of action against dirty energy extraction and burning is right around the corner!
About seven members of Board Riders Against Drilling demonstrated what it would be like to swim in a sea covered in oil, in a national day of action commemorating the first anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Co-founder and spokesman Dominico Zatata, from Mount Maunganui, said the day was an opportunity to highlight the issues surrounding offshore oil drilling and create public awareness and protest the action occurring in the Western Bay of Plenty.
On Wednesday, several dozen protesters marched through downtown Fort Worth, waving signs and chanting anti-drilling slogans that reflected concern over air and water pollution.
The anxiety centers on a recently expanded drilling method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which is now used in more than half of new gas wells drilled in Texas. This practice — which involves blasting water, sand and chemicals far underground to break up rock and extract gas — is common in the Barnett Shale, a major shale-gas field around Fort Worth.
The protest, organized by the group Rising Tide North Texas, is the latest sign of a backlash against drilling in Texas. Yard signs saying “Get the Frack Out of Here” and “Protect Our Kids/No Drilling” have appeared in some yards in Southlake, a Dallas suburb. A few communities have declared a temporary moratorium on drilling permits, and Dallas set up a task force last week to examine drilling regulations within its city limits.
More than one-hundred people turned out in Wellington to protest against oil exploration off the east coast of New Zealand by Brazilian oil company Petrobras.
People from the East Cape Maori tribe, Te Whanau a Apanui, were supported by Maori from around the country, environmentalists, activists and concerned New Zealanders.
A large crowd of fishermen and concerned residents gathered beside the shrimp boat docks on Biloxi Bay Wednesday to mark the one year observance of the BP oil spill.
About 50 Vietnamese fishermen were a part of the group. They carried protest signs urging BP to restore the gulf and pay their damage claims.
Following on the massive sit-in at the Department of the Interior on Monday, activists in Washington DC joined collectives from around the country to take action today for the Rising Tide Day of Action against Extraction.
The activists tied a banner around the doors of the DC Government Affairs offices of British Petroleum to send them a message on the anniversary of the start of the Gulf disaster that corporate polluters will be held accountable.
six activists with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), Rising Tide North America, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the Backbone Campaign were arrested after climbing the fence to Midwest Generation’s controversial Crawford coal plant in Little Village. The activists unfurled a 7’ x 30’ banner atop a 20 foot tall sprawling coal pile that feeds the power plant, which reads: “Close Chicago’s Toxic Coal Plants.”
The groups are demanding the closure of the plant just one day before the much-anticipated Clean Power Ordinance hearing, which could force the plant to undergo major modifications to upgrade their pollution controls.
LVEJO, Rising Tide and RAN Chicago are calling for the closure of Chicago’s two toxic coal-fired power plants, the Crawford plant in Little Village and the Fisk plant in Pilsen, both owned by Midwest Generation. These two plants are Chicago’s largest sources of particulate air pollution. In the last three years alone, these plants combined have spewed over 45,000 tons of pollution into the air, compromising the health of all Chicagoans.
Cascadia Rising Tide protest in Hood River Oregon in opposition to shipments of drilling and refining equipment up the Columbia river for use at the Alberta Tar Sands.
Wednesday (20 April) artists from art activist group Liberate Tate are staging a performance in the Tate Britain on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and spilled 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days.
A naked member of the group has had an oil-like substance poured over him by silent figures dressed in black and wearing veils, and is now lying in a fetal position on the floor in the middle of the exhibition Single Form. Dedicated to the human body, Single Form is one of a series of ‘BP British Art Displays’ staged throughout the galleries of Tate Britain.
Attendees of the “ Gulf Coast Leadership Summit” received a pleasant surprise this morning upon hearing a representative from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announce a ban on toxic dispersants — as well as a free health care plan for spill and cleanup victims. Even more surprising: a BP co-presenter expressed regret for his company’s past actions, and said the oil giant would foot the bill for the new health care plan.
But the news was too good to be true. Surprise turned to confusion when an intensely irate BP representative barged into the room and interrupted the press conference. Comedy ensued as the two reps pointed fingers at each other, each claiming to be the real BP employee. Members of the press, confused, attempted to discover who was real and who wasn’t.
The answer was: except for the audience, everyone was a fake. The impostors Dr. Dean Winkeldom and Steve Wistwil, both Gulf Coast residents, collaborated with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an organization whose goal is to create sustainable communities free from industrial pollution. The organization decided to create a hoax to publicize what should be happening in response to the emerging health crisis.
Over 50 people braved sub-zero temperatures and pouring rain to become a lively torrent of ‘human oil’ rushing through downtown streets today, forcing wildlife and residents to flee for their survival and Enbridge workers to scramble to save their public image. The large-scale street performance, organized by Climate Justice Montreal, dramatized the hidden dangers of pipeline construction and dirty oil extraction.
The pipeline breach occured at approximately 12:30 pm at the corner of Sherbrooke and McGill College. A sea of human beings dressed in black garbage bags and covered in sticky crude rushed southwards crying chants of “This Bullshit, Get Off It, Planet Over Profit” and “D-I-R-T-Y Enbridge Got No Alibi, They’re Pipeline’s are DIRTY!” As the crowd moved on, the spill only gained in intensity as the dragon spewed balloons full of sticky crude in its trail.
A PR team in Enbridge outfits rushed ahead of the torrent trying to downplay the dangers of the oncoming tide with statements such as “there is nothing to worry about here,” “Enbridge has only the highest standards in safety monitoring and control,” and “please return to your energy-intensive lifestyles.” This time, Enbridge’s campaign of greenwashing could not keep the human and environmental costs of their pipelines out of the public eye.
In fact, organizers brought attention to Enbridge’s track-record of failing to protect the environment and ensure the safety of communities. “Just last year, an Enbridge pipeline spilled 20,000 barrels of oil into rivers in Michigan. We don’t want that to happen here,” said Robin Reid Fraser, a member of Climate Justice Montreal. The group is targeting Canadian energy giant Enbridge in opposition to its proposed Trailbreaker pipeline project which plans to bring 200,000 barrels/day of Alberta tar sands crude through Montreal.