Young 20 year old Chiara Rose D'Angelo has come down from the anchor chain of the Arctic Challenger, the Shell Oil drilling support barge. Chiara spent three nights hanging from the chain, having climbed it on Friday evening about 6 pm. Regardless of where any person is on the issue of Arctic drilling or oil and the environment in general, we have to respect this dedication. That had to be cold and uncomfortable beyond what most of us would endure. She was cited for trespassing.
She is reported - see links below - to have come down Monday morning and was helped down by the Coast Guard at her request. She was checked by medical folks and reunited with her mother and friends - as the linked articles tell us. I'm repeating some of this because I've not been able to find local reporting on this - including the normal sources on FaceBook and other local blogs.
James Wells, a Bellingham writer, has posted a good report in the Daily Kos.
King 5, Seattle TV news, has a video of the CG helping her down from anchor chain. They also give news time to a "purity test troll" - one who says if you have a fiberglass kayak then you have no right to protest Arctic oil drilling. Hmmm. So that is like saying if a person wore cotten shirts in the 1850s then they had no right to protest slavery. Or if you own a gun then you have no right to want gun registration laws. James Wells has a good post on that - and he links to it from his article above.
As this episode ends, Google News is lising 656 news stories world wide about Chiara on the anchor chain. Google makes it difficult to link, but you can go to Google News, type in "Shell Bellingham" and click 'Search news" to find current posts. Chiara accomplished what she wanted to - even if the King 5 reporter didn't understand the value of her protest. She drew attention to Shell's plans to drill in the Arctic this summer. She heightened awareness and more people will be paying attention to news about how the Coast Guard and other government agencies facilitate the drilling for oil in the Arctic. When the inevitable oil spill happens then perhaps there will be more awareness. Chiara accomplished her mission.
