Greenpeace Tactics: Stepping it up a notch

Two years after their first high-profile Alberta action, Vue looks at Greenpeace's recent escalation of tactics

| Commenting on this story is closed.

${image_caption}$

You could lay any number of adjectives at the feet of Greenpeace's Edmonton branch, but one thing you certainly couldn't accuse them of being is quiet. In the little over two years that the notorious worldwide environmental group has been operating in our province, they have been relentlessly ringing the bell on global climate change and Alberta's increasingly prominent role in the problem, doing anything from publishing a steady stream of reports on the Fort McMurray tar sands' effects on the environment and the viability of a green Alberta economy to hanging banners off the High Level Bridge and rappelling into Progressive Conservative conventions.

Yet even for the group's provocative past, their recent actions involving the occupation of tar sands mining facilities and upgraders stand out as something unique. Though direct action and civil disobedience has a long history worldwide in everything from labour movements to national independence struggles, and has long been a tactic of Greenpeace globally, protests of this nature are virtually unheard of in Alberta's recent history.

One could tell that much if only from the government's response. In light of the most recent Greenpeace action, an early October protest that involved occupying the Shell upgrader site in Fort Saskatchewan, the Alberta government has made noise about pursuing harsher punishments for these kinds of actions, and has even brought up the spectre of using anti-terrorist measures to keep protestors off sites in Alberta. While many are quick to point out that the legislative branch of government has no place influencing the judicial, and that such bluster represents an often-used and poorly-conceived plan to avoid the issues at stake while attempting to delegitimize normal and healthy political dissent, the mere fact such wind is blowing is a clear indication that these occupations ruffle feathers to a greater degree than Greenpeace's other actions in the province.

But Greenpeace is hoping that these actions do a lot more than perturb our local government. As Bruce Cox, head of Greenpeace Canada explains, the occupations are designed to be high-profile events that raise awareness of the tar sands internationally, partly in advance of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, and partly because the group feels the adverse effects of the tar sands, both locally and globally, are still poorly understood by the world in general.

"What you're seeing is a natural progression of the campaign from the local to the international ... and we have to start drawing that attention" says Cox, who points out that, when he met with American environmental groups like the Environmental Protection Agency in May, he was surprised at the relatively low level of knowledge regarding the tar sands. "It was disappointing, because we have been doing all this work, but the lesson we took away was that we need to get the word out more that this is not 'secure' oil, that it comes with a huge price."
His sentiments are echoed by Mike Hudema, the local point-man for Greenpeace and arguably Canada's most prominent tar sands activist.
"I think once people start hearing some of the statistics around the tar sands, start seeing the pictures of just how devastating this is, they're very willing to start pushing their politicians and their companies to get out of such a destructive project," he says, pointing towards recent developments such as the pressure from opposition parties in Norway to pull their national oil company, Statoil, away from tar sands development, and last year's signing of a resolution to avoid the use of fuels with a high carbon cost by 850 American mayors.

But while both Hudema and Cox point out that climate change and the tar sands' role in it is a global problem that demands global attention and solutions, this grasping for international attention is underscored by a very unfortunate reality in the province: that domestic efforts to address climate change and slow down the tar sands often amount to nothing.

"Environmentalists have tried talking to the government, giving reports to the government, working with the government's various committees and bodies—nothing has made a dent," says Laurie Adkin, a University of Alberta professor and expert on environmental movements who has been an outspoken supporter of Greenpeace's recent actions and a critic of the government's heavy-handed response. "If you've tried everything that you can try locally, and you don't have the resources of the governing party and the multinational corporations that are benefitting in the short term and you're up against very complacent political culture, then the next option is to use international pressure on that local government."
As Hudema explains, the attempt to draw international pressure through these particularly high-profile occupations is indeed a result of Greenpeace and other environmental groups meeting a stone wall when trying to effect change through more standard political means.
"We do a lot of lobbying, meeting with political officials, outreach, education, but you see the direction our government is moving. The government both on a provincial and federal level are pushing for development as quickly as possible," he points out. "When the government doesn't listen to all of those traditional forms of political dialogue, I think civil disobedience and direct action is a needed and necessary tactic."

It certainly seems to work elsewhere. Ed Thompson is an activist with Climate Camp, a UK-based direct action group that has done everything from camp-in protests—actions where protestors live in a sustainable camp near the site of what's being protested, to show a viable alternative—to occupations of coal plants and corporate headquarters in an effort to get the British government to confront the issues of climate change.

"The classic line is that this is a democracy and that our tactics have no place in this country," Thompson says of opposition to their tactics. "For years and years and years we've had climate NGOs and development NGOs that have been campaigning and the government announced new runways, new coal-fired power stations and doesn't want much to do with renewable energy.

"We encourage action on all fronts, but at the end of the day, direct action has proven to be one of the most effective tactics, because the media just flock towards it. Through direct action, we've really put those issues on the table," Thompson adds, pointing to recent victories such as UK company E.ON abandoning plans to build a coal-fired power plant and BAA's decision to not pursue another landing strip for Heathrow airport, both issues that Climate Camp has worked to change.

Considering the media attention Greenpeace has garnered for the occupations, it would seem to be working just as well here. But there are drawbacks, especially in Alberta's climate. As Adkin points out, there is a long history in the province of people resenting being told what to do with our resources, a sentiment the government is only too happy to exploit to its own ends. Still, she feels that, so long as Greenpeace gets the word out to the international community and keeps up its education and lobbying work, in the long run these direct action protests can only help the cause of changing Alberta's approach to the tar sands.

"The Alberta government will say, 'We don't care what other people think; we know better,' and some Albertans may agree, but what's really going to make the difference is if there is a market response: if, for instance, the importers of oil in the United States search for different sources or switch to alternative kinds of energy," she points out. "What's really going to become critical [on a local level] is whether Greenpeace can demonstrate that there are alternatives that don't involve impoverishment or worsening standards of living for Albertans. There has been a lot of work done on this, it's just a matter of drawing attention towards it.

"Really though," she adds, when asked to sum up the impacts of the protests, "environmentalists in this province have tried everything to this point, and you can see the effects. It's hard to see how this could make things worse." V

Greenpeace Tactics: Stepping it up a notch

Two years after their first high-profile Alberta action, Vue looks at Greenpeace's recent escalation of tactics

Most recent comments