Video: Oil execs shaken by thousands of Kiwis beating drums

Thursday, 2 April 2015, 7:45 pm
Column: Greenpeace New Zealand

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On Sunday more than 4,000 people rocked up to the Skycity Convention Centre where the oil industry fat cats were having a summit.

Together we sent a message loud and clear to the government and the oil industry that they need to leave our beautiful oceans alone. To have a future without climate disasters we don’t need more risky deep sea oil drilling, we need a rapid transition to clean energy.

The vibe at the Victoria Park meeting point was electric, and our international guest Michael Franti put on an unforgettable show, performing three of his high-energy songs to kick-start the march.

And the drums! A highlight was just how many of you brought along a drum - real or makeshift. It was definitely shiver-down-your-spine material when we beat them in unison outside the convention centre - It felt like we could be heard all the way over in Norway at Statoil HQ.

But if the oil summit delegates thought the march was all they had to deal with, they were sadly mistaken.

The very next day 28 smartly dressed activists were waiting outside the main entrance of the convention centre holding mural-sized photographs depicting the human and animal suffering caused by climate and oil-related disasters.

We wanted to present the delegates with the human face of the terrible cost of their industry - in a way that they couldn’t ignore.

The delegates had no choice but to walk past these emotive images, and as you can see from the photographs, many of them averted their eyes as they shuffled past revealing an industry in denial of its impact to people and the planet.

Soon after energy and resources minister Simon Bridges announced the new “Block Offers” for petroleum exploration. There were no surprises there and now a shocking 425,205 square kilometres of our territorial oceans are being offered to foreign oil companies for exploration and drilling. This includes vast tracts of ocean in the Reinga-Northland Basin, Taranaki Basin, Pegasus Basin, and Great South-Canterbury Basin.

Seismic testing for oil threatens marine life and is carried out next door to the sanctuary of the Maui’s dolphin, of which there are only 55 left.

You can be part of the fight to give our little native friends a voice by signing the international petition to extend the Maui’s dolphin marine sanctuary and ban seismic testing within 20 nautical miles of its boundary.

The 2015 oil summit may have come to an end, but what lives on is the fact that, thanks to people like you, Kiwis across the country are now more aware than ever about the risky reality of deep sea oil drilling.

Even Simon Bridges had to admit that we were right - clean energy is the future, but he’s just not going to help make that future happen. And that’s why it falls to us to keep demanding that it does.

We won’t take the pressure off extreme oil drilling. As we write this, the Greenpeace ship Esperanza is tracking Shell’s monster Arctic oil rig across the Pacific Ocean as it heads towards the Alaskan Arctic.

Johno and Dan from New Zealand are on board and you’ll hear from them and the crew soon as they work to shine a spotlight on Shell’s reckless plans to drill in one of the last unspoilt parts of the world.

You can follow 'The Crossing' at https://www.savethearctic.org/en-NZ/live/ - and give the bros a bit of a boost by sending them a message here!

Thanks so much for all of your support – none of this would be possible without you.

Let’s continue to beat our drums to beat the oil baddies!

Have an enjoyable Easter,

Nick and the whole crew at Greenpeace

PS If you're hungry for more, here's another video of the march that somebody sent us yesterday - a different perspective and worth a watch.

ENDS

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Greenpeace

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