Three environmental activisits unfurled a banner underneath the Rainbow Bridge which connects Canada and the United States on September 15, 2009, which protested Canada’s tar sands. This was meant to happen the day before Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and American President Barack Obama were due to meet in Washington.
For those of you who don’t know the area, what these three did would be considered a daredevil stunt characteristic of similar stunts that have been undertaken in the Niagara Falls area. They were dangling themselves 70 feet from the top of their lines on the Rainbow Bridge, with a further 100 foot drop below them. The video above is the banner unfurling, and the video below is an interview with one of the activists while he was hanging off of the Rainbow Bridge. Read more about this action and the problems presented by the Canadian tar sands at Rainforest Action Network.
Tags: banner niagara falls, dirty oil, oil sands protest, rainforest action network, tar sands action, tar sands banner niagara falls
Comments (2)
I am all for conservation but this stunt does more to strock this guys ego than further any environmental cause. I don’t know whether Canadas oil sands are environmentally disastrous or not as your article says nothing of it but consider this. Anything plastic or nylon we use in this world is derived from oil including the rope this guy is hanging from, his coat, probably the banner he hung across the falls and also components in some mattresses. We may need to move away from using oil and its derivatives but this is a gradual process. Viable alternatives need to be found, tested and implemented. Conservationists need to spend more time presenting viable alternatives, not justing canning something they dont like.
Hi Graham:
I didn’t mean to praise or put down their actions, I merely meant to reinforce the “daredevil” nature of this stunt since most people don’t know the area well and from the video the Falls look far away. I have a link to the activist’s site to explain the “dirty oil” in more detail but I found this more even-handed explanation in National Geographic if you want a third-party view:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/kunzig-text/1