Greenpeace's Arctic Defenders Deported from Greenland

Greenpeace activists in Arctic deported

I just wrote the other day on four Greenpeace activists, dubbed the “Arctic Defenders,” who climbed an oil rig in the Arctic and occupied it (hanging above cold Arctic waters) for 40 hours before coming down and being arrested by the Greenland police.

Their friendly Greenpeace colleagues and partners in Greenpeace’s ‘Go Beyond Oil’ tour were hoping that after being released from jail, the four would rejoin them on their boat, the Esperanza, and they’d complete the tour together. News is that won’t be the case. The four young men are being deported to their home countries now. Fellow ‘Go Beyond Oil’ activist Lisa writes:

Jens, Sim, Timo and Matt are flying home to Germany, USA, Finland and Poland respectively. Their personal belongings are still on board and they are going home in spare clothes bought for them by friends in Greenland. I’m sure they’ll be glad to see their families again but we’re really going to miss them on the ship and we haven’t finished our ‘Go Beyond Oil’ tour yet.

Yesterday we were hoping they would be back on board and Victor even made them a Welcome Home banner. I have sent them all the supportive messages people wrote us over the last few days by email.

For more on this story and a few photos of Jens, Sim, Timo and Matt, head on over to Greenpeace International’s ‘Making Waves’ blog.

Hopefully these four young activists accomplished enough in their time in the Arctic and through their heroic efforts there to lessen the amount of oil being pulled from the Arctic, burned, and turned into global warming pollution, and to help generate enough social consciousness and political will to stop deepwater oil drilling in the Arctic before we have oil disasters there that ruins its fragile and precious ecosystems.

Photo Credit: StephYo via flickr

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