Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
3
Role Models for the Rooftop Revolution
The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to,
something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your
life. Andthe most important thing is, it must besomething youcannot possibly
do.
—
HENRY MOORE
T
HE
W
ORLD
E
NERGY
C
OUNCIL 17TH
C
ONGRESS, IN
H
OUSTON
, Texas, 1998: We were on
a mission. Our first goal was to highlight the evils that Big Oil wrought on frontier areas
like the Amazon; the second was to let all the international bigwigs attending what was
until then the largest gathering of petroleum giants that the days of easy oil were over.
Just after 3 a.m. on September 16, 1998, five of us crouched down at a section of the
fence that protected what was to become Enron Field, just opposite the George R. Brown
Convention Center, where all the official meetings were being held. We rolled under the
fence while two others kept an eye out for the roaming security guards who took turns
patrolling the perimeter. My backpack, with the stuffed koala I'd had since I was a kid
sewn into a side pocket, hardly fit through the hole because it was so jammed with ropes,
harnesses, and other climbing gear. We worked quickly, our bodies humming with adren-
aline. Once on the other side, we raced toward the enormous idle crane in the middle of
the field, mud sucking at our boots. When we reached the crane's ladder, we ascended it
in the order we'd planned—I went last because one of my tasks was to install a steering-
wheel lock on the hatch at the first landing, to slow down anybody who tried to catch us.
This precaution proved unnecessary, as nobody pursued us, at least not then. By the time
the sun rose with a lambent glow over the Houston skyline, we had tied our anchors, rap-
pelled into place, and unfurled what was then the biggest banner (more than 1,500 square
feet!) ever used in an American act of civil disobedience:
H
OUSTON
, W
E
H
AVE A
P
ROBLEM
.
S
TOP
N
EW
O
IL
E
XPLORATION
.
