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A group of U.S. environmental activists nicknamed “Kayacktivists” from Portland, Oregon, Tuesday started to try blocking the passage of Shell Oil’s icebreaker bound for the Arctic, “in what could turn out to be the start of a multiday civil disobedience action,” reported the Portland Tribune.
Protesters demonstrated in kayaks in front of Vigor Industrial's shipyard dock, where Shell's drilling support ship, the Fennica, is being repaired for a damaged hull before starting drilling again.
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Various groups, including Climate Action Coalition, 350 PDX and Portland Rising Tide called for a mobilization for a “kayak and water vigil” from noon at the Cathedral Park boat ramp in North Portland.
“Scientists tell us we can’t drill in the Arctic if we want to avoid dangerous climate change and sea level rise that threatens three-quarters of the Earth’s major cities in the next few decades,” commented Daphne Wysham, from the Center for Sustainable Economy. “Nevertheless, Shell is putting its corporate profits ahead of the future of the planet and preparing to drill in a region where an oil spill cannot be cleaned up.”
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Maya Jarrad, from 350PDX, also called the decision to drill Arctic insane – just like environmental champion and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
“Scientists are sounding the alarm, telling us we need to keep most of our known fossil fuel reserves in the ground. This makes Shell’s extreme extraction adventure in the Arctic the definition of insanity,” Jarrad said.
On May 11, the U.S. government gave European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell plc the green light to start drilling in the Chukchi Sea, in the Arctic. It is estimated that 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable gas and 13 percent of undiscovered, recoverable oil supplies are located in the Arctic. As climate change melts Arctic ice, countries are in a race to extract the fossil fuels which caused the melting in the first place.
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