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Updated: Greenpeace Climbers Arrested for Climate Change Protest at Mount Rushmore National Memorial

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Greenpeace protesters unfurled a huge banner on Mount Rushmore to protest climate change and U.S. policy. Greenpeace photo.

Eleven Greenpeace members were arrested Wednesday for mounting a protest on the granite presidential faces of Mount Rushmore National Memorial to urge President Obama to "show real leadership on global warming."

Park staff were alerted by security systems at 10:11 a.m., local time that a number of individuals had breached a controlled area and accessed the top of the monument. While the climbers were able to unfurl a 65-foot-by-35-foot banner next to Abraham Lincoln's face, they were arrested shortly thereafter and taken to Rapid City, South Dakota, and jailed. Possible charges range from trespass to destruction of government property.

Park workers planned to assess the monument for any damage and were to remove the banner as soon as they could safely do so.

National Park Service officials would not say how the 11 managed to evade Mount Rushmore's security systems, reach the top of the monument, and rappel down its face, nor would they describe what security measures are employed at Mount Rushmore.

The banner draped across the front of the monument featured an unfinished portrait of President Obama with the message, "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming."

The demonstration comes as President Obama met with other G8 leaders in L'Aquila, Italy, on Wednesday to discuss the global warming crisis in the lead-up to UN climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

"This monument celebrates leaders who rose to the great challenges of our past. Global warming is the greatest crisis humankind has ever faced and it is the defining test of leadership for this generation. It's an open question whether President Obama will pass that test," said Greenpeace USA Deputy Campaigns Director Carroll Muffett.

According to a Greenpeace release the activists were trained in rock and industrial climbing and took special care not to damage the monument, using existing anchors placed by the National Park Service for periodic cleanings.

The demonstration followed a series of protests in Italy earlier Wednesday where other Greenpeace activists hung banners on coal plant smokestacks calling attention to the collective failure of leadership on global warming at the G8.

"We're at a moment in history where President Obama must show real leadership on global warming, not only for Congress and the American people, but for the world. Unfortunately, the steps taken to address the crisis so far have been grossly inadequate," said Muffett. "While President Obama's speeches on global warming have been inspiring, we've seen a growing gap between the president's words and his actions."

According to Greenpeace, "the best science shows that to avoid catastrophic global warming, governments must take action to keep global temperature rise as far below 2 degrees Celsius as possible.

"Given President Obama's pledge to follow the science, it's troubling that his administration has not yet endorsed emission targets strong enough to keep us below that critical threshold," the activist group said.

Furthermore, the group, said, the experience earlier this year "with climate legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, which was drastically weakened by lobbyists for the oil and coal industries and other big polluters, showed that unless the president provides strong leadership on this issue, special interests will win out over the common interest."

"Doing what it takes to solve global warming demands real political courage," Muffett added. "If President Obama intends to earn a place among this country's true leaders, he needs to show that courage, and base his actions on the scientific reality rather than political convenience."

Greenpeace is calling on President Obama to use every tool at his disposal, both within and outside Congress, to strengthen U.S. climate policy with scientific integrity, and to take that policy to Copenhagen in December as evidence the U.S. will do what it takes to solve the climate crisis.

Specifically, Greenpeace is calling on President Obama to:

* Strive to keep global temperatures as far below a 2 degrees Celsius increase as possible, compared to pre-industrial levels to avert catastrophic climate change;

* Set a goal of peaking global emissions by 2015 and be as close to zero as possible by 2050, compared to 1990 levels;

* Cut emissions in the U.S. by 25-40 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels;

* Join and encourage other members of the G8 to establish a funding mechanism that provides $106 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to global warming impacts that are now unavoidable and halt tropical deforestation.

Greenpeace is also calling on President Obama to attend the Copenhagen conference personally to ensure a strong, science-based agreement is reached.

Comments

maybe we should hang flags on your house???some things are off limits,you can make a statement without this nonsense of hanging the flags on rushmore...go to third world countrys and try to get them off their duffs and,quit wanting usa to do everything for the world...we had to fight for what we got...


greenpeace,get a real job.....go to brazil,russia,china,iran,irag,saudia arabia,and do your protests.


Chance, I'm with you on your comments. I submit to you Chance, you have a very bright career ahead of you and at least you don't profess to be a know-it-all. Good luck to you young man.

This comment was edited to remove unnecessary disparagements.--ed.


Many of the comments in opposition to this activist plea for saving the planet and humankind are quite sad and evident of the "head in the sand" mentality of the masses. What a shame. Cries for protecting the ROCK, or having your nostalgia or vacation ruined is hideous. What if each generation only cared about their brief stay on the planet with no regard for the future? Well that is basically what we have now ... self-centered, greedy, ignorant people, governments and corporations. As a 21-year HIV survivor and an openly gay man, I can tell you that ACTIVISM is what saves lives. SAVES LIVES! If it were left to the ignorant (meaning uneducated) masses, there would be no fast track drug approval for ALL diseases and ailments. There would be no right for women to vote, no biracial marriage, no African American equal rights, we would still have slavery, and more. NEVER agree to be oppressed. NEVER stop expressing your thoughts. Never be stifled by comments on Facebook or anywhere. But please take these actions in the context of the intention of the activists... To help all humanity have a planet on which to exist. It's pretty basic. Open your minds and hearts to this issue of global warming. The clues are everywhere. Get your head OUT OF THE SAND and stop the denial.


Back in 1971 when Greenpeace began carving out its niche, soon becoming (in that era) the world's largest environmental NGO, it had a key role to play -- namely, making the public aware of environmental problems and urging environmental action. It's analogous to whacking a mule on the head with a two-by-four to get his attention. That's the sort of thing that you need to do when the public is in the first stage of environmental awareness and action (the "no talk, no do" phase; you don't see any problems, so you don't apply any fixes) or stage two ("talk, no do"; you become aware of serious problems but still aren't doing anything to fix them). The rub comes when you get to stage three, which is the "talk, do" phase (you are keenly aware of environmental problems and you are working on solutions). That's where we are now, and everyone seems to know it except stuck-in-the-seventies Greenpeace.

Here in America we environmentalists are addressing this country's environmental problems using political/legal, educational, and technical means. We are, in short, institutionalizing environmental stewardship. One of these days we'll be at stage four, which is the "no talk, do" phase (environmentally responsible behavior is essentially instinctive; we practice it routinely and unselfconsciously). Meanwhile, we are making progress every day.

The bottom line is this: America has moved beyond the time (and mindset) that calls for the kind of kick-in-the-pants stuff that Greenpeace specializes in. Now Greenpeace pranks are just an embarrassment to environmentalists who have worked very hard, decade after decade, to become effective and gain respect.

Greenpeace is like the crowing rooster who takes credit for making the sun rise. Take away the rooster, and the sun still rises. Take away Greenpeace pranks, and the environmental movement will not miss a beat.


Kurt, I could not make out the "not" in the Greenpeace message (from the photo Greenpeace provided). It appeared to be a red blob. I went back and looked at other photos of the banner and most were similar to the photo you provided. I'm curious to know if you could make it out or did you decipher the complete message from the text in other news reports? Going to all that trouble, you would think they would make the "not" more prominent. Although I understand they wanted the photo to come through.

Without the "not" I was trying hard to understand their message. I'm guessing most people had to rely on the news report text to understand their message....or not...chuckle.

Thanks for posting, Kurt.

rob
---
Executive Director,
Crater Lake Institute
www.craterlakeinstitute.com
Robert Mutch Photography


Rob, yeah, the wording on the banner could have been a tad more clear. They sent me a press release, so I knew what it said without looking at the banner;-)


The global warming scare is the greatest hoax ever put on mankind.

Does it bother you at all that Al Gore stands to make millions of dollars if this silly-a$$ carbon credit trade system is put in place? Don’t you think that this is a conflict of interest in the extreme?

There are 31,000 scientists that now say that either the earth is not warming, or if warming, is not caused by man made CO2, including John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel as well as Roger Revelle, the mentor for Al Gore, who came to doubt his original position on man-made global warming.

To the people who blindly believe this dogma: does this information give you any pause? Are you open minded enough to listen to the other side before making decisions that will have negative ramifications to our freedoms, our financial security, and our way of life?

And to those same people, why not nuclear energy? Nuclear power solves a lot of our problems. It’s a clean, safe, sustainable power. And , it would create jobs, something this country desperately needs right now.

http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2288928/posts

http://www.nei.org/

http://www.oism.org/pproject/


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