Greenpeace has revealed that veteran rock bassist (The Clash, Gorillaz) Paul Simonon was among the activists arrested in June for occupying an Arctic oil rig. Simonon had joined the Greenpeace crew anonymously, working as an assistant cook.
The oil rig, operated by Cairn Energy, one of Europe’s largest oil and gas companies, was boarded on June 3 by the Greenpeacers, who demanded that the company produce a response plan for an oil spill. They were subsequently charged with with “hijacking” the oil rig when they refused to leave. From the Greenpeace blog post:
Paul joined the action in the Arctic to demand Cairn oil produce their oil spill response plan, which they had refused to make public. On June 3, he braved firehoses and a gruelling climb to board the Leiv Eriksson oil rig with 17 other activists. In the frigid arctic waters, an oil spill even a fraction of the size of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico would be devastating, and far harder to contain.
Simonon, who is an accomplished visual artist, drew a charcoal drawing during his two-week stint in the can, seen here on his jail cell wall.
The blog post was part one of two covering Simonon’s experience. You can find part two soon on the Greenpeace Facebook page.
(via Pitchfork)
Photo: Pooneh Ghana