Photo credits: Greenpeace.org

Environmental Activism has never taken a back seat in Seattle and we continue to root for the individuals, organizations and public officials who are working to draw global attention to a possible environmental disaster. Certainly not the moment to “Keep Calm & Carry On”…

Hundreds of kayakers in Seattle were preparing to go and “shake their paddles” in protest at a newly arrived 400ft long, 355ft tall Royal Dutch Shell oil rig on Saturday, with hundreds – perhaps thousands – more scheduled to attend on dry land.

“We here in Seattle do not want Shell in our port. We want them to get out and change their business before they change our planet and destroy the life of future generations,” said Annette Klapstein, a 62-year-old retired attorney and member of activist group the Raging Grannies.

On Monday, the Obama administration effectively gave Shell the green light to restart its Arctic drilling and exploration operations with an approval issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a governmental regulatory agency.

Shell was forced to halt its Arctic exploration in 2012 amid a series of severe security mishaps.

Environmental groups and scientists reacted to Monday’s news badly, warning that letting Shell back into the Arctic for exploration and drilling was very likely to cause an ecological disaster and contribute to climate change.

According to a US government study from this year, chances of an oil spill occurring as a result of drilling in the Arctic over the next 77 years are as high 75%.

These are figures well known to community members and activists in Seattle.

To Klapstein, the correct analogy is that of a plane crash.

“Can you imagine being told to get on a plane that has a 75% chance of crashing? Who gets on a plane that has a 75% chance of crashing?”

Read the entire article here.