Page 147 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

11 BEARING WITNESS AND THE LOGIC OF CELEBRITY … 137

activists and their banner which read in big white font “Stelmach: the best
premier oil money can buy” (Greenpeace 2008b). The video then shows
security swiftly escorting Greenpeace protesters from the premises encir-
cled by a roaming scrum of 8–10 journalists, photographers and camera-
men. While security dealt with the interruption to the Premier’s
fundraising dinner promptly and professionally, the stunt received national
media attention, successfully disrupting the event’s intended framing and
creating a mediated opportunity for oil sands contention (cf. Le Billion and
Carter 2012).
On July 23, 2008—exactly three months after the Stelmach protest—
Greenpeace activists turned their attention to Syncrude’s Aurora North
operation. The site was targeted as 1600 ducks had previously died at that
2
location after landing in a tailings pond. Pictures of the “dead ducks”
would become powerful mind bombs in activists’ repertoire of images
underlining the toxicity of the tar sands. The July banner drop at the site
was executed with semiotic precision. Activists sought to “transform the
opening of a tailings pond pipe into the ‘mouth’ of a giant skull spewing
toxic sludge” (Greenpeace Canada 2008a). A second, significantly bigger
white banner with large black font was positioned against an upper bank of
the tailing pond read: “World’s dirtiest oil; Stop the tar sands” (Ibid.).
Both banners were simple but strong in their messaging. The visual and
performative nature of these direct actions integrates an acute appreciation
of mediated communication into the logic of bearing witness to injustice,
amplifying the original message with an online press release featuring
photographs of the event and videos of the action uploaded to YouTube
(see Greenpeace 2008a).
In the eight plus years since this intervention, Greenpeace and other
eNGOs protesting the tar sands have engaged in a range of further direct
actions. In August 2011 Tar Sands Action drew on the logic of numbers
and logic of bearing witness to undertake a mass sit-in in Washington, D.C
to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline. The protest, which ran from August
20 to September 3, 2011, was designed and executed as a symbolic and
coordinated act of civil disobedience (McKibben 2011; Wihbey 2011).
The event’s location—the gated and heavily policed sidewalk of 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue—ensured that a clear and centered view of the White
House served as a backdrop for media documentation of the sit-in and the
subsequent arrest of participants. In addition, some activists reinforced
their message with visual props and homemade and professional banners
with slogans such as “Lead on Climate”, “No tar sands XL pipeline”,