ACTIVISTS WANT ACTION

Greenpeace Makes Urgent Call for Climate Action From Face of Mt. Rushmore; Challenges President Obama to lead the world in fighting global warming
July 8, 2009 (Greenpeace USA)

"…11 daring Greenpeace climbers hung a banner on Mount Rushmore challenging President Obama to show real leadership on global warming. The banner, measuring sixty-five feet high by thirty-five feet wide, features an unfinished portrait of Obama with the message, "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming.” The demonstration comes as President Obama meets other G8 leaders…to discuss the global warming crisis in the lead-up to UN climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen this December…

"To highlight the issue, 11 activists completed a challenging climb to the top of Mount Rushmore, and three rappelled down, hanging the nearly 2300-square-foot banner as they descended. The activists, highly trained in rock and industrial climbing, took special care not to damage the monument, using existing anchors placed by the National Park Service for periodic cleanings…[O]ther Greenpeace activists hung banners on coal plant smokestacks calling attention to the collective failure of leadership on global warming at the G8…"

The action. Greenpeace sees the situation as too urgent for politics. (click to enlarge)

"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…Earlier this year, the experience 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…"

The banner. Greenpeace doesn't speak incrementalism. (click to enlarge)

"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.

"… Greenpeace is calling on President Obama to…Strive to keep global temperatures as far below a 2 degrees Celsius increase as possible…Set a goal of peaking global emissions by 2015 and be as close to zero as possible by 2050…Cut emissions in the U.S. by 25-40 percent by 2020…[E]stablish a [G8] funding mechanism that provides $106 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to [unavoidable] global warming impacts…[H]alt tropical deforestation…Greenpeace is also calling on President Obama to attend the Copenhagen conference personally…"