Katie Loncke, BPF Co-Director, at #ShellNo Protest in Portland

From BPF Co-Director Katie Loncke, who is on the bridge in Portland, Oregon providing support to the climbers at the‪#‎ShellNo‬ protest:Holy shit. Feels good to be on a bridge in Portland this morning. Behind me and amazing comrade Kristina Flores are 13 brave people, some I'm honored to call friends, suspended from a famous bridge, low enough to form a human blockade preventing a Shell Oil icebreaking ship from leaving the port. This ship is a vital part of the completely disastrous Arctic oil drilling that experts call ruinous for climate change, that is devastating to traditional land ways of indigenous far northern peoples, and that has already cost Shell $7 billion (with a B) to just *explore,* let alone extract.

Never would have imagined learning how to tie the knots, help prep the gear, and support the deployment and defense of an action like this, yet here I am on this bridge with a beautiful team, 10 hours on the bridge and going strong. It's the kind of action that doesn't just protest climate change or raise awareness, but actually disrupts and slows the major mechanisms, hitting Shell's economic bottom line. They only have a narrow window of time in the summer when their work in the Arctic is physically possible in the extreme conditions, and every day this ship is not there is a day all their other rigs are forced to go idle. What a tremendous honor to help make such a direct impact.There's much more to say but I gotta stay alert on the bridge! Mostly want fam and friends to know I am currently safe, happy, surrounded by some brilliant and loving people joining in solidarity to stop drilling in the Arctic. May anti-imperialist, anti-colonial climate justice resistance continue to explode across the world. May mostly-white groups like Greenpeace continue to learn how to be in solidarity with black and brown resisters on the front lines. May we support, love, and challenge each other as we continue to fight! heart emoticon