http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Anti-Arctic-drilling-kayaktivists-hold-Shell-No-protest-303995901.html
Kayactivitists rally on Alki Thursday as the Shell rig is towed to Seattle, Wash.
SEATTLE (AP) – Activists opposed to drilling for oil in the Arctic were gathering Saturday morning under a cloudy sky as they prepared to launch a flotilla of kayaks and other boats on Seattle’s Elliott Bay, two days after the arrival of a towering rig.
The “Paddle in Seattle” – a daylong, family friendly festival in a West Seattle park and an on-the-water protest by “Shell No” kayaktivists – aims to continue the message sent as the Polar Pioneer drilling rig arrived: “Stand up for the climate and say no to Shell’s drilling plans.”
“This weekend is another opportunity for the people to demand that their voices be heard,” Alli Harvey, Alaska representative for the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign, said in a statement Friday. “Science is as clear as day when it comes to drilling in the Arctic: the only safe place for these dirty fuels is in the ground.”
The gathering, hosted by a coalition of groups, is expected to draw thousands both on land and in the water. At the center of the paddle protest will be the “People’s Platform,” a 4,000-square-foot barge powered by renewable energy, said Jonathon Berman with the Sierra Club.
Just a quarter-mile away from the Seacrest Marine Park sits the 400-foot long, 300-foot tall Polar Pioneer, the first of two oil drilling rigs that Royal Dutch Shell plans to use this summer as it explores for oil off Alaska’s northern coast. The second rig, the Noble Discoverer, arrived at the Port of Everett last week and is slated join the Polar Pioneer at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 5 at a later date. Everett port spokeswoman Lisa Lefeber said on Friday that they expect the Noble Discoverer to be there for two to three weeks.
The Arctic holds about 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of its oil, according to Shell’s website.
“This amounts to around 400 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 10 times the total oil and gas produced in the North Sea to date,” Shell’s site says. “Developing Arctic resources could be essential to securing energy supplies for the future, but it will mean balancing economic, environmental and social challenges.”
The activists see it differently, however.
The protesters say it’s critical that they take a stand “against dirty fossil fuel projects” and want to put themselves on the front lines in the battle for Arctic oil.
Exposing the Big Game 
Will be interested in seeing how much attention this gets beyond Seattle. There have been several hundred people protesting an underground (convenient!) animal laboratory to be built on at the University of Washington. I didn’t hear/see that story on the East Side of Washington or on the national news, although I can’t watch everything all the time. Also heard of a senior “prank” in Tennessee where urine, oil, and “dead animals” were left littering the hallways of the high school. The story I heard stressed that cost incurred and the possible damage to people (they could slip on the floors). The students have been threatened with being blocked from high school graduation activities. BIG DEAL! No mention in that story of the dead animals, how many, or how they died. Guess their lives don’t matter.
Typical. Unless they block the freeways, no one will pay attention.
“Unless they block the freeways, no one will pay attention”. True! It was a peaceful “Paddle in Seattle” today. At the protest, I was thinking, everyone here feels the same way about this environmental issue. The people who need an alert, are not here! Many people see this as a “tree hugger” issue and not about them.
Are you going back out there over the next few days?
I’ll be there tomorrow, for the “You Shall Not Pass-Mass Direct Action.
Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog.