This handout photo courtesy of Greenpeace shows activists scaling Mount Rushmore yesterday and hung a banner urging US president Barack Obama to get tough on climate change next to the carved face of Abraham Lincoln. Photograph: Kate Davison/Greenpeace/AFP/Getty Images
Environmentalists yesterday scaled Mount Rushmore and unfurled a banner along President Abraham Lincoln's face challenging America's leaders to stop global warming.
Eleven people were charged with trespassing and the misdemeanour crime of climbing on Mount Rushmore National Monument, US attorney Marty Jackley said. They pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement that three of its members hung the banner on Mount Rushmore while other activists blocked access to the site. Greenpeace said the climbers, using existing rock anchors that the park service uses for occasional cleanings, went up the back of the monument, then rappelled down its face to unfurl a 65-by-35-foot (20-by-11-metre) banner reading: "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming."
"Our brave climbers rappelled down the face of Mt Rushmore to issue a challenge to President Obama: if he wants to get his face on this monument, he needs to be a true leader on global warming, not a politician," wrote Greenpeace USA's "Mike G" in a blog post yesterday.
Jackley said he could not confirm Greenpeace's account.
Mount Rushmore Ranger Nav Singh said security warnings and tourists alerted officials when the banner was unrolled. The banner was removed about an hour after it was unfurled.
"You can't create any security system that's 100% fail-safe. There's just not enough resources for that," Singh said. "Determined individuals that are properly equipped and willing to do damage to government property can do this sort of thing."
Twelve people were taken away in handcuffs and foot chains. The 12th person taken into custody was released without being charged, Jackley said. He would not say why.
Park service staff remained at the mountain yesterday to assess damage to the sculpture and security systems. When asked about possible damage, Jackley said the activists had not been charged with property damage, but he noted that the investigation was ongoing.
The Mount Rushmore protests followed the hijacking of Italian coal power stations by Greenpeace campaigners earlier in the day, in a move that activists said was designed to make world leaders take decisive action on climate change.
The 60-foot (18-metre) high faces of four US presidents -- Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt -- are carved into the granite on the south-east face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Together, the faces extend 185 feet (56 metres).
A number of demonstrations have taken place at Mount Rushmore over the years. In the early 1970s, American Indian Movement members tried several times to occupy and deface the monument. In August 1970, AIM members hung a banner with the words "Sioux Indian Power" on the monument. In October 1987, Greenpeace activists tried unsuccessfully to unfurl a banner shaped like a gas mask over George Washington's face. That banner said, "We the People Say No to Acid Rain."
The 11 activists charged yesterday were released on their own recognisance after the court hearing. A trespassing conviction carries up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine, prosecutors said.
When Greenpeace becomes your messenger you've hit bottom.
Thank goodness for these folks! It's about time more messages like this make it out there and show up on the news. Our leaders really need to make dramatic changes for the climate or we are in big trouble. It's up to all of us to urge our politicians to do the right thing - stop playing the political games and be leaders for the climate. Global warming is such a huge challenge and to ignore it any longer is going to end disastrously for all of us.
Global warming is the biggest environmental problem threatening our world today and acting to stop it is not a weather issue, or even a political issue, it's a moral issue. And like it or not, President Obama has the power to stop it if he drops the politics and steps up to be a moral leader. Climbing Mt. Rushmore WAS effective to draw worldwide attention to this. If that's what these activists felt it was necessary to do, to express this urgent need for action, more power to them. Those activists are brave and should be commended for standing up for all Americans and citizens of the world.
It was effective??? Only at proving that Greenpiece continues to partake is stupid stunts. You say it is a moral issue. Then explain why the activists tell a judge they are not guilty then turn around and proclaim to the media that they did it... Hmmm just a bunch zealous hypocrites.
Worry about global cooling baby...
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GREENPEACE IS STUPID
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