Two Greenpeace activists, Anais and Viktor climbed the anchor of Stena Carron, a 228m long drill ship. Then suspended themselves in a tent chained onto the anchor, thus preventing the Stena Carron from moving.
The ship belonged to oil giant Chevron and was to sail 200 km north of Shetland Islands and drill a 500m well into an area called the Atlantic Frontier, known for being a ecologically sensitive area.
The two Greenpeace activists, had just returned from an expedition in the Arctic where they halted a deep water drilling rig operated by Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy.
September 24, 2010
Oil Giant Chevron turned to court order to stop the Greenpeace protest. The company a court order forcing Greenpeace activists to get off, or faced huge fines or custodial sentences. Chevron claims that they have to move the ship because they cant guarantee the safety of the activists, but drilling ships are built to not move even in the toughest situations.
Greenpeace activist, Leila Deen said:
“Chevron is using a legal hammer to end a peaceful protest. Our pod occupation by expert climbers is entirely safe, but Chevron wants to send this ship to sea to drill a dangerous deep water well off the Scottish coast and that’s why they’ve gone to court. This is all about money for them, regardless of the dangers to the Scottish coastline and the global climate. Our climbers might be forced down, but we’ll continue to bear witness to this reckless drilling operation. We have to go beyond oil and invest in clean energy technologies that won’t pollute our seas and overheat our fragile climate.”
“There is a huge contradiction at heart of what Chevron’s saying. They claim they need us off their anchor chain because they can’t guarantee this ship can hold its position in rough seas, but they want to use the same ship to drill for oil in even rougher seas, where a deviation of a few metres in their position risks disaster. In reality our protest was always entirely safe, while deepwater drilling is reckless and dangerous.”
September 28, 2010
Despite being forced off the anchor of Chevron's drilling ship due to legality, Greenpeace activists continued to get their message across as activists took turns swimming in a wet suit below the bow of the ship.
For more than 46 hours Greenpeace activists put their bodies on the line as they put on the thickest wet suit gear and plunged into the freezing cold waters and pushed around by waves that threw them up and down more than 5m.
"We must, must go beyond oil. So every time I am heaved back out of the water, four more hours under my life-belt, and back to the security of the Esperanza, I am rolled from the boat into the Wet Room, to be unpeeled from my suit and I am asked - "Up for another shift in 8 hours?" I look to my buddy Victor and without hesitation we both say "Yup. Bring it on.""
References:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/chevron-shetland-stopped210910/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/Oil-giant-gets-legal-hammer-to-stop-Greenpeace-protest/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/swimming-against-the-tide-the-things-people-d/blog/26518
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