Community | July 09, 2009 | 60 comments

Greenpeace activists arrested for banner on Mount Rushmore

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090708/ts_alt_afp/environmentwarmingusprotest

Image
JanforGore
Will they be seen as 'terrorists' too? I stand with them and their message 100%. Especially since they did not hurt the mountain and stated they took proper precautions. Their message is true. True Leaders Lead. It's time we saw that on climate change.

Satyagraha.

Excerpt:

Greenpeace activists were arrested Wednesday for scaling Mount Rushmore and hanging a banner next to the carved face of Abraham Lincoln urging President Barack Obama to get tough on climate change.

A video posted on the environmental group's website showed the massive banner hanging on the South Dakota mountain face.

Its message -- "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming" and an unfinished portrait of Obama -- was barely visible as it was whipped by wind.

"Doing what it takes to solve global warming demands real political courage," Greenpeace USA deputy campaigns director Carroll Muffett said in a statement.

"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."

The protest comes as Obama meets with other G8 leaders in Italy.

G8 leaders agreed to bear the brunt of steep global cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, saying developed countries should reduce their pollution by 80 percent by 2050, a summit declaration said.

Greenpeace said the 11 climbers "took special care not to damage the monument, using existing anchors placed by the National Park Service for periodic cleaning."
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60 comments // Greenpeace activists arrested for banner on Mount Rushmore

  • GodsnLiberals
    • 0
      GodsnLiberals  

    • if greenpeace's methods work..then we would not need them anymore..decades and decades of bullshit rolls into one giant bullshit..

      why worry?? blame it on the GOP..jesus or the jews..

    • 2 years ago
  • GodsnLiberals
    • 0
      GodsnLiberals  

    • Bono tried to save Africa with a concert..DID THAT WORK????

      there are too many jaded people in this planet and too many shyster enough to take advantage of them..

      fucks everything up for everybody..

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
  • lifestudentno83
  • bluestranger
    • 0
      bluestranger  

    • Peaceful civil disobedience does my old inner hippy good. If I ever get arrested I hope it will be for a cause as good as this.

      There seems to be more than a few people worried about this national monument. This is a monument not a shrine. This is also a national monument built on land ceded in a treaty to native americans. As usual, a treaty that was broken. How much more fitting could that be? Hanging a sign about saving our planet on land once owned by people who respected the earth.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • GodsnLiberals
  • GodsnLiberals
    • 0
      GodsnLiberals  

    • and all of that brovado...all that sqaking..all that shock and awe will AMOUNT TO SHIT..

      greenpeace had and has and is still doing shit like this BUT YIELDS NO RESULTS..because its the wrong approach...proof??after decades of this shit..what have they accomplished??

      in case you guys failed to see the obvious..these people do have good intentions BUT they are more concerned and busy with how they deliver the message.

      the delivery always outshined the message..RETHINK your strategy

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
    • 0
      lifestudentno83  
    • GodsnLiberals:

      Nice job sitting on your hands and complaining while others fight for your right to breathe.

      I guess when you and your conservative counter-parts start passing laws to price and tax breathable air, then you really will defend them until your last breath...

    • 2 years ago
  • GodsnLiberals
    • 0
      GodsnLiberals  
    • GodsnLiberals:

      I dont think grandstanding every solved anything other than curing someone's own insecurities..

      doing a live8 concert DOES NOT CURE POVERTY
      doing a nude protest NEVER SOLVED SHIT..

      AND putting a banner next to those monuments amounts to shit..PROOF?? in a few weeks this whole ceremony would be forgotten..LIKE PRETTY MUCH EVERY GREENPEACE GRANDSTAND TACTICS...

      i want to help but not your way of helping..

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
  • ras_menelik
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  
    • Image

    • Overview of photosynthesis and respiration. Carbon dioxide (at right), together with water, form oxygen and organic compounds (at left) by photosynthesis, which can be respired to water and (CO2).

      Carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere

      Carbon dioxide in earth's atmosphere is considered a trace gas currently occurring at an average concentration of about 385 parts per million by volume or 582 parts per million by mass. The total mass of atmospheric carbon dioxide is 3.0×1015 kg (3,000 gigatonnes). Its concentration varies seasonally (see graph below) and also considerably on a regional basis: in urban areas it is generally higher and indoors it can reach 10 times the background atmospheric concentration. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.
      Yearly increase of atmospheric CO2: In the 1960s, the average annual increase was 37% of the 2000-2007 average.[17]

      Five hundred million years ago carbon dioxide was 20 times more prevalent than today, decreasing to 4-5 times during the Jurassic period and then slowly declining with a particularly swift reduction occurring 49 million years ago.[18][19] Human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation have caused the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide to increase by about 35% since the beginning of the age of industrialization.[20]

      Up to 40% of the gas emitted by some volcanoes during subaerial volcanic eruptions is carbon dioxide.[21] It is estimated that volcanoes release about 130-230 million tonnes (145-255 million tons) of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. Carbon dioxide is also produced by hot springs such as those at the Bossoleto site near Rapolano Terme in Tuscany, Italy. Here, in a bowl-shaped depression of about 100 m diameter, local concentrations of CO2 rise to above 75% overnight, sufficient to kill insects and small animals, but warm rapidly when sunlit and disperse by convection during the day.[22] Locally high concentrations of CO2, produced by disturbance of deep lake water saturated with CO2 are thought to have caused 37 fatalities at Lake Monoun, Cameroon in 1984 and 1700 casualties at Lake Nyos, Cameroon in 1986.[23] Emissions of CO2 by human activities are currently more than 130 times greater than the quantity emitted by volcanoes, amounting to about 27 billion tonnes per year.

    • 2 years ago
  • kruzadir
    • 0
      kruzadir  

    • Tell us why this is interestingWe have free speech, but that does not satisfy jerks like these, because others are then free to not listen. They imagine they have a right to do anything to force us to hear them. Rot in jail.

    • 2 years ago
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  

    • let me try this again.

      in the last 100 years we took WHAT took at least 500 million years of "phytoremediation" to create and turned it around.

      that is what burning fossil fuel is all about.

      No nature will not suffer it will just turn another leaf........but it is our leaf and YES IT IS US with our pigeon meat-head brains that bring it on!!!!!!!!

    • 2 years ago
  • Herbal_Minded
  • ras_menelik
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  

    • So let me get this strait in this Story all we find is posting issues and something about a sacred rock!

      you all done lost your minds!!good thing too,considering what the G8+G5 done to you as we Bicker.............

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • NonaSuomi
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • Well, I don't care if I am the only person on this site who believes that what they did was right. And it was the right place because it got the attention that it needed to get to get people talking. I suppose the women protesting for the vote shoudn't have hung banners outside the White House either? If they had hung this over a coal stack, no one would care today. I would much rather see a sign like that hanging from Mount Rushmore than to not see the mountains at all because we are so screwed up in our priorities that we allow coal companies to blow them all up without even showing half the outrage. And there will not need to be any action like this taken again if those who claim to be leaders actually live up to the word.

    • 2 years ago
  • current89
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • JanforGore:

      Actually, those four men were men who may have been applauding that action. Thomas Jefferson also wasn't a man to want monuments to himself. He would be more concerned with the overall message which shamefully, many here don't seem to get.

    • 2 years ago
  • current89
    • 0
      current89  

    • I think what the protesters did was brave and well intentioned. However, they did break the law and I'm quite sure they knew the repercussions of their actions. I just think their time would be better sent outside of a jail cell.

      @Jan

      If Current has a problem with us pointing out the facts and not personally attacking people. I'm sure they'll let us know. Sadly you mistake my, Delia's and other posters actions as policing and personal attacks.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • current89
  • curtisreed
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  

    • @Jan

      1. Yes, Informed Texan's post does say they were arrested; excerpt: "Less than two hours later, a Greenpeace spokesman said all three, plus eight other Greenpeace activists at the site, had been taken into custody by park authorities.Patty Rooney, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, confirmed that there had been arrests."

      2. "I think the self appointed Current police force needs to stop acting like they control this site." I am not a self appointed anything nor do I act like I control anything. You posted basically the same exact thing with the same picture and everything. All I did was point that out. Why do you always have to treat me so uncivilly?

    • 2 years ago
  • curtisreed
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      That wasn't uncivil.That was an honest opinion. Why did you have to purposefully point out this post when it was posted twice yesterday, besides other posts being posted more than once? Who cares? Vote the duplicate down. And now because I dared to not answer you with a sugary sweer reply or apology you try to start an argument about my comments. Do you have anything to say about the topic? If not, I'm done.

    • 2 years ago
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      Jan, take a minute to take a deep breath and relax. I'm not after you. People double post all the time, it's not a big deal at all, though I find it annoying. I thought you would be INTERESTED to see the other post and community responses there. I thought you and others would be interested to see the video.

      "That wasn't uncivil.That was an honest opinion" You could have easily said "Delia, that post was about yesterday while mine focuses on the arrest and new information" or something along those lines. It has nothing to do with "sugary" responses, but there was no reason for you to rant about the "self appointed current police" and thinking I "control everything".

      Again you get on the defense by saying that I'm "starting an argument". This is not the case. I can easily keep things civil even though I don't like you very much (and the only reason for that is based on the way you have treated me since I've been on Current.). All I'm asking is that you do the same. I don't think it's much to ask.

    • 2 years ago
  • bluestranger
    • 0
      bluestranger  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      Jan and Delia, c'mon. You've both been here too long for this snipping. I enjoy both of your post and responses. I feel like you're my sisters. Well they snip at each other too. But they always hug and make up in the end.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • More NEW information on this story.

      "Eleven members of Greenpeace pleaded not guilty to federal charges after they were arrested for hanging a banner on South Dakota's Mount Rushmore Wednesday to protest global warming as the G-8 summit in Italy begins.

      Greenpeace says it does not think its 2,275-square-foot sign will damage Mount Rushmore's structure.

      "America honors leaders not politicians: stop global warming," reads the 2,275-square-foot sign.

      Twelve protesters were arrested, but one was released after questioning. The others appeared before a federal magistrate Wednesday afternoon and received citations for illegal climbing and trespassing, according to federal prosecutors.

      Each person faces a maximum of six months in prison and possibly up to a $5,000 fine.

      The charged protesters came from eight states, including California and New York. The banner was up for an hour before it was seized. The National Park Service is holding it as evidence, authorities said. Watch tourists react to the protest »

      Some of the demonstrators breached a controlled area and got to the top of the monument, Mount Rushmore spokeswoman Patty Rooney told CNN.

      Greenpeace, a nonprofit organization that supports environmental causes, said the sign is part of a global day of action to urge world leaders at the G-8 summit to make global warming a priority and to take the actions necessary to stop climate change.

      "We are at a key moment in history when we must challenge our president to take real leadership," said Carroll Muffet, deputy campaign director for Greenpeace.

      "The steps taken so far have been frankly inadequate. If President Obama wants to take his place among the great leaders of history, he must take aggressive measures to combat climate change and prioritize a strong deal in Copenhagen," Muffet said in a statement.

      "We're here at Mount Rushmore to inspire Americans to take action, and remind the world that heroism and leadership are part of our nation's history -- and must be a part of our future," Muffet said. "

    • 2 years ago
  • vipergts333
    • 0
      vipergts333  
    • JanforGore:

      I agree. this could inspire some more stupid and radical behavior. I think they have the right to say what is on their minds, but this is over the top. behavior like this should not be tolerated. peaceful protest good. defacing a national park bad.

    • 2 years ago
  • lamborghini
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • No it wasn't. Informed Texan and Ras Menelik posted about the action (OOOPS, TWO people posted that, the horrors!), not that they had been arrested. I think the self appointed Current police force needs to stop acting like they control this site.

    • 2 years ago
  • Nettle
    • 0
      Nettle  
    • JanforGore:

      Geez, you're so touchy. She wasn't attacking you, she just wanted to let everyone know that there was a very similar post. And the staff could use some help, there's no reason for us to not point out small issues. It's not like Delia censored you or reprimanded you. She just made a comment.

    • 2 years ago
  • metalcookiesxy70
  • Herbal_Minded
  • DeliaTheArtist
  • leahl
    • 0
      leahl  
    • JanforGore:

      Hey folks: this was a hot story, and while the postings were similar: they all addressed different elements of the story and I believed they each added value and differentiated from the other.

      ras-manelik brought the live video in real time, Informed Texan added the first full article written about the event, and the janforgore added the story on the arrest.

      I thought this was an excellent example of how we were staying...(forgive me) current on the topic.

    • 2 years ago
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  

    • Current really needs to get it's double posting problem in order! Anyway, this was posted yesterday by Informed Texan, check out what people had to say it has about 30 comments. Here's a vid from that thread with them setting it up.

    • 2 years ago
  • rockstarmillionaire
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • These monuments belong to US, the people, and those faces etched into Mount Rushmore are of men who more than likely would say the same thing those protesters did. It is however apparent that those who sincerely and passionately stand up for this planet and future generations will be treated like the women who first risked all they had for the women's sufftage movement. Or those who first stood up for civil rights. They will be called terrorists, unpatriotic, and demeaned in order to divert from the important message they bring. However, this message like the message of women suffragettes like Alice Paul and civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. will prevail. I wonder, are those who feel this was defacing a monument as outraged about this government allowing uranium prospecting in the Grand Canyon? Or blowing the tops off our beautiful Appalahian mountains? Or exacerbating the melting of the Arctic and the environmental degradation of World Heritage Sites worldwide? Or dumping sludge into the rivers of Alaska? Where the hell are your priorities?

    • 2 years ago
  • ALLNATURALVEGANS
  • curtisreed
  • MinneapolisMafia
  • ras_menelik
  • JanforGore
  • jh64487
  • MinneapolisMafia
  • curtisreed
  • jaystyx
  • bluestranger
  • Herbal_Minded
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  

    • I have lost all faith in politicians,that thinking of a leader is the last thing on my mind when I see one.

      Leading is A Total package so he is one or NOT!,so far nothing some say in 120 days?? I say nothing to impressive but still his 120 make bush's 2922 look like the crusades or the dark age...............

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • "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."

      Amen. And that goes for the ENTIRE Senate now.

    • 2 years ago
  • leahl
  • leahl
  • JanforGore
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