Canada: Greenpeace's oil sands protests

Greenpeace's Oil Sands Protests Draw Attention. By Steve Lillebuen, Edmonton Journal, June 1, 2008. "A small army of environmentalists are convinced they can sway public opinion to scale back Alberta's lucrative oil sands projects. Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, which share office space on Calgary Trail, are up against an oil industry that has pumped billions of dollars into the province. Both groups have decades of lobbying -- some successful, others not -- and Albertans are largely behind environmental reforms. But the debate over the potential effectiveness of a Greenpeace campaign to stop the tar sands in a province dependent on oil revenue is shaping up to be a discussion that's dividing policymakers and environmentalists… Activists have dressed up in superhero costumes, disrupted news conferences and rappelled from the High Level Bridge and the ceiling of the Shaw Conference Centre. It's all part of an environmental movement that became increasingly confrontational after Greenpeace opened its Edmonton office nine months ago… David Taras, a political expert at the University of Calgary, says protests that embarrass the premier have proved disastrous in the past… The national Greenpeace office ultimately decided that its form of protesting would work because the group would grab more headlines in a province not used to seeing such radicalism… The Sierra Club's focus remains on developing grassroots movements that are far less confrontational, says Leila Darwish... of the group's prairie chapter."