Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

16 August 1997

As you have read in previous entries, there have been early morning floatilla protests of ARCO's offshore drilling platform. There have been suits filed by both ARCO and the State of Alaska against the Arctic Base Camp and the Arctic Sunrise for such spurious charges as ramming their 150,000 ton drill rig with an inflatable raft. There have been Federal Marshals sent to Egg Island to issue summons to all seven activists there to respond to ARCO's charges. And then just when we thought things couldn't get any stranger, they did.

We weren't two whole days into the protest (see story below), when who to our wondering eyes should appear?..... but a rather large image of Elvis completely clad in green. Due to forces much greater than any magnetic convergance, beyond the Aurora Borealis, beyond any limit of mere human comprehension, live above the Arctic Circle it was Eco-Elvis cruising the Beaufort Sea near Pruhoe Bay. Reborn with a shining gleem in his eye and a mission handed down from on high it was The Green Elvis come to protest oil exploration. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Green King was sighted on Egg Island!

Now this is not just a random sighting reported by some trashy tabloid (though there have been a recent rash of those). No, this sighting was confirmed by a wide variety of both partial and impartial witnesses from all walks of life. Greenpeace activists, tug boat captains, and Coast Guard enlisted men were among the lucky few to get a brief glimpse of Green Elvis as he waved a banner that read STOP OIL, SAVE THE CLIMATE. There was even a team of Federal Marshals rumored to have been seeking a personal meeting with The King for more than just an autograph. Could they be trying to serve him a summons? Was he singing out of tune?

Twenty years after his "purported" death Elvis was quoted as saying, "I want all the boys and girls and my many fans around the world to know how deeply concerned I am about climate change. I have never had a greater love than I have had for my mother, and I have only begun to see the great harm we have caused Mother Earth." And then, just as soon as he appeared, he drifted away among the aqua blue arctic ice. Amidst raving comments about Alaska Governor, Tony Knowles being "a sad puppet of the oil industry," Elvis drifted away on the pack ice. In the midnight arctic twilight all that could be heard were the lyrics to a familar Elvis tune.

BURNING LOVE

Lord almighty, I feel the temperature rising
Higher and higher, it's melting the ice on the poles
Oil, Oil, Oil, Oi,l you're the fuel for this fire
The climate is changing, now we don't know which way to go

Yeah, the situation's getting dire
The oceans are creepinmg higher
The earth's a funeral pyre
BURNING LOVE

MMMMM
Ooo, Ooo, Ooo
I feel the temperature rising
Fossil Fuels are a-burning, consumption is out of control
Spin all the news, cook your science but nothing can fool me
Cause I can see smoke and where there's smoke,
Well baby there's fires/liars

Yeah, the situations getting dire
Politicians are all for hire
Oil Industry is the buyer
BURNING LOVE

I'm a hunk a hunk a ECO LOVE
Whoa! I'm just a hunk a hunk a ECO LOVE!
( Repeat forever)

Yes friends, it has been a really weird few days up here on Alaska's North Slope. But as they say, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." This is Woody reporting. For the earth and everything on it.