Protesters dangling off of the St. Johns Bridge (credit, law school)

[danielj72]

The ship should have plowed through, let physics sort them out. I am tired of all the dirty hippies protesting everything, tired of protests. Do these people not use oil??? They never ride in or drive cars? Use plastic?? Use Electricity? Don't they have jobs to go to instead of causing all this trouble. I wish the ship had plowed them down, that would have served as a warning to all the other young malcontents with nothing to do but cause trouble.

[KJoe11]

I am one of those rednecks out in the burbs that the Ubers here love to denigrate. Even I think that drilling in the Artic may not be a good idea and is too dangerous. Now, agreeing with a segment of fascist regime makes me feel icky so excuse me while I go wash.

[Nell Plotts]

Originally Posted by danielj72

The ship should have plowed through, let physics sort them out. I am tired of all the dirty hippies protesting everything, tired of protests. Do these people not use oil??? They never ride in or drive cars? Use plastic?? Use Electricity? Don't they have jobs to go to instead of causing all this trouble. I wish the ship had plowed them down, that would have served as a warning to all the other young malcontents with nothing to do but cause trouble.

My DH voiced the same opinion but he also would have billed them for the $ spent by public agencies.

[CSD610]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

Greenpeace protesters dangle from ropes off St. Johns Bridge to stop Arctic drilling ship (live updates) | OregonLive.com

Blocking a navigable waterway and dangling from a bridge with no permit to protest has to be some kind of illegal right?

Just another example of "You can't fix stupid but you can certainly demonstrate it".
They need a job or a hobby or something and what they are doing is not going to stop aything.

I am curious how many of those hanging from the bridge use the products produced by what this ship is carrying on a daily basis.

[Terryj]

Originally Posted by ca_north

I don't doubt that, but do you think it's intelligent to drill for oil in the very place that oil is altering dramatically? (anti-denial links in advance)

The most publicized USGS estimate of recoverable oil reserves in the Arctic ranges up to 90 billion barrels, but in the context of world oil consumption that's only about 1,000 days or 2.7 years of oil unless consumption drops radically. Arctic oil is not a true game-changer and just perpetuates AGW denial, along with the inevitable spill that the jobs-vs-environment crowd doesn't care about.

I actually support limited Arctic drilling simply because oil is too irreplaceable. But I don't support the casual waste of oil I see on a daily basis in America, with people idling unnecessarily and showboating over horsepower. There's a huge logic gap among the public about the foolishness of running an economy on finite resources, consuming them based on temporary prices, not future supplies.

I can agree with some of what you are say here, however, do you understand how all that oil got in the Artic in the first place? At one time the Artic wasn't the cold Artic, it was very warm with a lot of diverse plant and animal life. As with nature, if it has happened once it will most likely happen again, meaning there will come a day when there will be no ice in the Artic, with or with out human influence.

Have you ever been to the North Slope where all the oil is extracted? You said that "the jobs-vs-environment crowd doesn't care about" that just isn't true. I worked on the North Slope for a few years and I can tell you that it is one of the most environment conscious areas in the U.S. The misconception that most people in the lower 48 have about oil production in the Artic is mind boggling. I do believe that they really think that Prudhoe Bay and the surrounding area is nothing but an oil spill. Let put it to you this way, if you were to spill anything on the ground that didn't belong there in the first place, you must clean it up, report it and then spend the next 2 hours filling out paper work explaining your actions, then you could face a fine or expulsion from the North Slope.

[danielj72]

Originally Posted by Terryj

I can agree with some of what you are say here, however, do you understand how all that oil got in the Artic in the first place? At one time the Artic wasn't the cold Artic, it was very warm with a lot of diverse plant and animal life. As with nature, if it has happened once it will most likely happen again, meaning there will come a day when there will be no ice in the Artic, with or with out human influence.

Have you ever been to the North Slope where all the oil is extracted? You said that "the jobs-vs-environment crowd doesn't care about" that just isn't true. I worked on the North Slope for a few years and I can tell you that it is one of the most environment conscious areas in the U.S. The misconception that most people in the lower 48 have about oil production in the Artic is mind boggling. I do believe that they really think that Prudhoe Bay and the surrounding area is nothing but an oil spill. Let put it to you this way, if you were to spill anything on the ground that didn't belong there in the first place, you must clean it up, report it and then spend the next 2 hours filling out paper work explaining your actions, then you could face a fine or expulsion from the North Slope.

Yea all these do gooder liberals would think less of throwing a plastic coke bottle out the window here in the lower 48, a place they live in rather than envision oil production in the artic. I am not advocating pollution here but that region from every account you read is a frozen wasteland. It is not pretty, there is not that much life there and until oil was discovered there humans did not go there because there is little of value there. Again that is no excuse for polluting but I see no reason not to responsibly extract the oil and resources from the earth. As you said great effort goes into keeping it clean. That is the best we can ask for.

[Leisesturm]

I may be hazy on the history but... the first oil well was drilled around 1860. In 1860 you didn't drill for oil exactly, you just kind of ladled it into buckets and off to the refinery you went. 200 years later and you can't drill for oil anymore. You mine for it. The Deepwater Horizon was in about a mile of ocean water, 41 miles from the Louisiana shoreline... ... I don't know, but if drilling two miles into seabead a mile down from the surface is what has to be done to get oil these days... maybe the Greenpeace nuts have a point? Where hasn't there been a rig accident? You have to KNOW that there WILL be an accident up there in the Arctic, and it will be bad news for years.

But what of it? None of us reading this will need to worry. I don't know about any of you but my twins just turned 21. I kind of care about what kind of environment they will have when they are my age. I brought them into the world and I should not have done that if we were going to suck every last drop of anything useful in the planet to satisfy the needs of just one or two generations of First World Fuel Hogs.

They are hanging over the Columbia River, NOT over I-84. How are they affecting your commute? Why so much hostility? You make fun of the Green-peace Millenials for being dumb... just saying... four years at a third rate state university is knocking on six figures. Room, board and textbooks is another six figures. Parents of the 80% and below have abdicated their responsibility for educating their offspring due to the expense. They buy cheap houses in affordable neighborhoods and allow their children to languish in under-performing schools. Of course kids are dumb.

But they are not stupid. They know that we plan to die off and leave them with a MESS that they haven't got a prayer of cleaning up because we haven't given them the tools. I'd protest too if I saw that coming.

[Squidlo]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

I may be hazy on the history but... the first oil well was drilled around 1860. In 1860 you didn't drill for oil exactly, you just kind of ladled it into buckets and off to the refinery you went. 200 years later and you can't drill for oil anymore. You mine for it. The Deepwater Horizon was in about a mile of ocean water, 41 miles from the Louisiana shoreline... ... I don't know, but if drilling two miles into seabead a mile down from the surface is what has to be done to get oil these days... maybe the Greenpeace nuts have a point? Where hasn't there been a rig accident? You have to KNOW that there WILL be an accident up there in the Arctic, and it will be bad news for years.

But what of it? None of us reading this will need to worry. I don't know about any of you but my twins just turned 21. I kind of care about what kind of environment they will have when they are my age. I brought them into the world and I should not have done that if we were going to suck every last drop of anything useful in the planet to satisfy the needs of just one or two generations of First World Fuel Hogs.

They are hanging over the Columbia River, NOT over I-84. How are they affecting your commute? Why so much hostility? You make fun of the Green-peace Millenials for being dumb... just saying... four years at a third rate state university is knocking on six figures. Room, board and textbooks is another six figures. Parents of the 80% and below have abdicated their responsibility for educating their offspring due to the expense. They buy cheap houses in affordable neighborhoods and allow their children to languish in under-performing schools. Of course kids are dumb.

But they are not stupid. They know that we plan to die off and leave them with a MESS that they haven't got a prayer of cleaning up because we haven't given them the tools. I'd protest too if I saw that coming.

It was the St. Johns bridge over the Willamette river. It is the main way out of the peninsula area to highway 30. I am sure some folks that work the ports and industrial area were just pleased as punch to go 15 miles out of their way to get home.

Foolish endeavor at best. Id be more impressed if the group sponsored a trash clean up on public lands. I have done this, it makes a difference you can see.

[VTHokieFan]

I'm glad to see a voice of reason on this forum even if we might disagree on policy. Many of my neighbors here in St Johns were praising the protesters and tried telling me that just going 10 miles out of my way was a small price to pay to prevent the ship from passing.

The problem is that we all know that ship was going to pass, so that "trade-off" is completely irrelevant.

[j_k_k]

I think it's great. I'm heartened any time the kids care enough about something to raise proper hell about it. I have been worried that my generation, for my money the very worst parents in US history, have raised them to be so pliant and cooperative that they won't see how badly their parents' generation has screwed their future, and will therefore not visit their rage upon it. I think they should. They'd have to do a lot more than hang from a bridge and delay an icebreaker before I felt they had gone overboard.