Alaska News

Greenpeace activists chain themselves to Russian vessel carrying oil workers

Greenpeace's efforts to thwart drilling in the Arctic began early this year, with the arrest of actress Lucy Lawless after she boarded an Arctic-bound oil drilling rig in New Zealand. Since then, the activist group has churned out myriad stunts, including occupying a Finnish icebreaker, shadowing Shell vessels on their Arctic journey, starting a celebrity-fueled Save the Arctic campaign, and creating the hoax ad campaign called Arctic Ready.

As autumn closes in on the Arctic, Greenpeace isn't slowing down. The group has boarded yet another ship, this time chaining their small boats to a massive vessel carrying Russian oil workers to a floating oil platform in Russia's Arctic, the Washington Post reports. According to a Greenpeace statement, 14 people are now aboard two boats attached to the anchor chain of the vessel.

The latest update from Greenpeace on Monday morning:

We've stopped them for 7 hours and counting…Our tiny boat is facing a massive ship with huge water cannons… Activists were in the water. They are now safe...Kumi's boat is now attached to anchor chain of this vessel – it's not moving anywhere and so the platform workers can't get on-board, effectively stopping its preparations to drill for oil in the Arctic.

Read more, here.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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