Andreas Wenzel
Soc. 122: Social Movements
Democracy Now
Kayaktivists
A group of protesters organized themselves over the past weekend to protest against the use of fossil fuels contributing to the problem of climate change. Fifty-two activists were arrested during the protest, setting up camp for the weekend along the railroad tracks that connect to two oil refineries in Washington State. Their efforts were part of a larger global campaign occurring across multiple continents aiming to "break free from fossil fuels." Their protest lasted more than two days, pitching tents on the tracks on Friday, May 13 until being arrested the following Sunday morning. The protesters managed to stall shipping to and from the oil refineries during the two-day camp out.
Another group of "kayaktivists" networked together and kayaked their way to the Shell and Tosoro oil refineries to raise a banner that read, "Transition Together" with a large graphic of men raising a wind-generator to symbolize the needed transition to eco-friendly energy sources. The banner was large and bright orange, and the dozens of brightly colored kayaks and suited kayakers only brought more attention to the scene.
The groups did a great job at networking and were able to mobilize available resources in a very creative yet effective manner. Their attempts were in partnership with the larger collective efforts to end our dependency on fossil fuels and the ecological damage that results from its misuse. The framing of their protest was straight forward and easy to understand, and emphasized that the (mis)use of fossil fuels will continue to affect our children's children many generations down the road if we do not take the necessary steps and efforts today to hinder these effects. Their main emphasis focused on the idea that we are extracting and consuming fossil fuels at rates much higher than they can renew themselves, and that we need to drastically slow these consumption patterns if we want our children to avoid disaster in the future.
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