On Monday, 11 Greenpeace activists had their day in court after scaling Mt. Rushmore in July and hanging a banner that bore an image of President Obama that said “America Honors Leaders, Not Politicians.” The action challenged President Obama to be bold on climate change in the leadup to December’s UN climate summit in Copenhagen (more details on that here)
Of the 11 activists, 10 got fines and community service (at a national park no less) and one, former RAN staffer and close friend Matt Leonard, got 2 days in jail which he reported for later that day. Matt is set to get out today.
Greenpeace activist Jessica Miller made this public statement on the steps of the courthouse:
“We climbed Mount Rushmore because we wanted to send a message to President Obama that this is an issue that is important to us, and to the future generations who will face the increasing impacts of global warming, like drought, severe weather and the loss of millions of lives around the world. We value living in a country where we can show our patriotism through the great American tradition of civil disobedience. It is, however, disappointing that Matt Leonard will serve jail time for something he should be proud of. Global warming is the most important crisis our generation must tackle, and it is time for all of us to stand up to stop global warming.”
After the failure in Copenhagen, we need more bold actions like this in 2010 and beyond. Get involed now
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that would deforest 3,000 hectares of land occupied by Indigenous peoples and negatively impact mangroves critical to the local fishing economy.