September 2010

Ok Twitter friends, it’s time to take action.

While Timo and Naz are out there hanging off Chevron's rig in the pod, stopping deepwater drilling, our politicians are out in Norway wrecking regional plans for a moratorium.

Yesterday we put out a message on Twitter, as soon as we heard from our German colleagues what was happening at the OSPAR conference:

Next thing that happens is Richard Benyon, the Under-Secretary for the Environment tweeted this:

They accosted you Mr Benyon because you're scuppering an important initiative to stop deepwater drilling!

Well the good news is that our occupation of Chevron’s deepwater drill ship has reached the end of its third day and is still going strong.  Timo and Naz are currently up in the pod and the word from them is that they could hardly be happier.  Last time I heard from Timo he’d just finished tinkering with the solar panels and was relaxing after chowing down on a self-heating veggie curry.

At last, the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is threatening action following the release last month of the independent audit commissioned by Sinar Mas, which showed that the company had been breaking Indonesian law and RSPO rules.

From Anais in the survival pod on the Stena Carron:

It’s my first time on the Shetland Islands. Rolling green hills, stunning cliffs, great wildlife, castle ruins and plenty of sheep everywhere. You can see how the life of the islands' inhabitants has been shaped by the sea over centuries. I am glad for this glance at another beautiful side of this planet - although we didn’t have much time on land.

We had to prepare an "instant action pack". On Tuesday morning in a hidden-away bay near Lerwick, the back of a van opened and a self-inflating direct action team popped out and unfolded. Boat drivers, a media team, along with the climb team (that's me and Victor from Sweden) boarded two inflatables filled with various gear bags and headed towards our target, Chevron's oil drilling ship, the Stena Carron.

Watch Leila give us a tour of the inside of the pod - the little survival station we've got setup on Chevron's anchor chain.

The pod has everything you need, bathroom, kitchen, hospital .. and housemates.

We'll get you updates from the pod as soon as we get them, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or GoBeyondOil.org for the latest.

-- James on the Esperanza

Following a heroic 24 hours by Anais and Victor in the tent suspended off the anchor chain, today we stepped it all up a notch by bringing in a purpose-built half-tonne survival pod.

I say ‘we’ but in fact I just sat on the safety boat watching in awe at the rigging magic going on at the hands of Anais, Victor, Nazareth and Timo.

Nice video footage just in of today's action to attach a survival pod to the anchor chain of Chevron's drilling ship, the Stena Carron.

Now the pod is successfully attached it will make life a bit easier for the activists aboard, enabling them to stay in position far longer than the previous portaledge.

Greenpeace is in Shetland to stop dangerous deep water drilling in UK waters, which resulted in the Gulf oil disaster earlier in the year. Greenpeace campaigner Leila is on hand to tell you more...

Not all of us can scamper up an oil rig's anchor chain - but we can all come up with ideas, and we need yours asap.

As our occupation of Chevron's massive drill ship goes on, we want a banner slogan from you to explain what our politicians need to do about deep water drilling.