Activists send message to Canada via a 70-foot banner about tar sands over Niagara Falls (VIDEO)
When I got wind that the Rain Forest Action Network (RAN) was planning to welcome the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper before his first official visit to the White House with a "warm welcome", my imagination took off. I wondered what RAN had up it's sleeve this time. You've got to love RAN, they've managed to walk that fine line of activism where their larger than life actions (aka activism) usually involve humor, make a memorable point, and rarely have the grandiose offensive air that many people have expressed about some of their activist counterparts. But the term "warm" welcome really got my imagination going and I started wondering, "geesh, are they going to go off the deep end and light something on fire to illustrate some point about global warming?"
Well, I was right about RAN going off the deep end (but that's all I was right about). They dropped a 70 foot banner over (nothing warm about it) Niagara Falls to illustrate the point that continuing to mine the tar sands was taking the world in one direction, while climate change activism is working toward the opposite direction.
Joshua Kahn Russel of RAN explains the reason behind the action in greater detail:
We caught up with Tar Sands Campaigner, Eriel Deranger a few hours after their 5 climbers had been arrested to explain what they hoped to accomplish:
Please tell us if there is a specific topic that you want to see covered.
Well, I was right about RAN going off the deep end (but that's all I was right about). They dropped a 70 foot banner over (nothing warm about it) Niagara Falls to illustrate the point that continuing to mine the tar sands was taking the world in one direction, while climate change activism is working toward the opposite direction.
Joshua Kahn Russel of RAN explains the reason behind the action in greater detail:
"During Harper’s first official trip to meet Obama in the U.S., the two leaders are expected to discuss climate change and energy policy ahead of the upcoming G20 Summit. Canada supplies 19% of U.S. oil imports, more than half of which now comes from the tar sands, making the region the largest single source of U.S. oil imports. The expansion of the tar sands will strip mine an area the size of Florida. Complete with skyrocketing rates of cancer (by 400%!) for First Nations communities living downstream, broken treaties, toxic belching lakes so large you can see them from outer space, churning up ancient boreal forest, destroyed air and water quality, the tar sands have been called the most destructive project on Earth."
Tomorrow’s visit to the U.S. by Prime Minister Harper is the latest attempt by Canadian Federal and Provincial officials to lock in subsidies for 22 new and expanded refinery projects and oil pipelines crisscrossing 28 states, which would transport and process the dirty tar sands oil. Many are concerned that Prime Minister Harper wants to protect the tar sands even though it is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada."
We caught up with Tar Sands Campaigner, Eriel Deranger a few hours after their 5 climbers had been arrested to explain what they hoped to accomplish:
Please tell us if there is a specific topic that you want to see covered.
