Mike Hudema

Activist

• Born: 1976
• Birthplace: Medicine Hat, Canada

Significance: Mike Hudema is one of the most prominent environmental activists in North America. He has organized large-scale protests in both the United States and Canada. Much of his work has been targeted at reducing the environmental damage caused by mineral extraction in the Alberta oil sands. Hudema’s protests helped raise awareness of the potential damage of the Keystone XL Pipeline project, eventually contributing to its cancellation.

Background

Michael George Henry Hudema, also known as Mike Hudema, was born in 1976 in Medicine Hat, Canada. He attended Crescent Heights High School, then continued his education at the University of Alberta. Hudema studied both drama and law during his time at the University of Alberta, eventually graduating with bachelor’s degrees in both. At nineteen years old, Hudema studied abroad in India. During this time, Hudema witnessed a participatory budget meeting during which hundreds of people worked to decide the budget for a large village. The experience inspired Hudema, who appreciated a different form of representational democracy. He hoped that the implementation of more effective democratic methods would lead to improvements in other lands.

Life’s Work

Following his studies at the University of Alberta, Hudema dedicated himself to environmental activism. He quickly became involved with a wide variety of environmental protests. These included protesting the opening of the Cheviot Mine and opposing boreal logging throughout Alberta.

In 2004, Hudema published the book An Action a Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away. The book serves as an action guide for modern environmental activists. It describes fifty-two weekly small-scale environmentally positive acts that collectively make a larger impact on environmental health.

Hudema’s work attracted the attention of larger environmentalist groups. In 2005, he joined Global Exchange as the organization’s Freedom From Oil Director. In this role, Hudema worked to convince automotive manufacturers to limit their impact on the environment by gradually eliminating tailpipe emissions. In 2006, the activist hosted campaigns against climate change in Canada, arguing that climate change was a danger to the sport of hockey.

Hudema was scouted by Greenpeace in 2007. The organization hired Hudema as the Climate and Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace Canada. This role was primarily focused on lobbying to end the Alberta oil sands. This region of Alberta is considered the largest crude bitumen deposit in the world. However, mining in the region has been heavily criticized by lawyers, journalists, environmental groups, and First Nations peoples. These activists claim that the extraction process is causing irreversible harm to the natural environment. In 2009, Hudema was involved in a larger Greenpeace protest that temporarily shut down one of the mines within the oil sands.

In September 2011, a protest organized by Hudema made national headlines. More than four hundred activists crossed a police line stopping protestors from entering a building on Parliament Hill. The protest was intended to raise awareness of the environmental damage potentially caused by the Keystone XL pipeline project. If completed, this pipeline would ship crude oil from Alberta to Texas. One-hundred-seventeen of the protesters were arrested and charged with trespassing. Protestors also hoped that their actions would inspire similar acts of civil disobedience across Alberta, slowing or stopping the creation of the pipeline.

The following year, Hudema and other activists organized an even larger protest against the pipeline project. Thousands of protestors gathered at the British-Columbia Parliament building, demanding that construction on the pipeline cease. Despite these efforts and numerous subsequent protests, progress on the pipeline continued until 2021, when US President Joe Biden revoked a key permit that allowed the construction companies to build within the United States.

In 2018, Hudema helped organize another major protest of the oil extractions in the Alberta oil sands. Hudema and eleven other Greenpeace activists met in Vancouver to use the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge to make an aerial blockade, stopping the oil tanker Serene Sea. The tanker was loaded with oil from the Alberta tar sands, and the blockade stopped the tanker from leaving port. Hudema and the other activists stopped the progress of the tanker for two days before they were arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Later that year, Greenpeace Canada announced that all charges related to the blockade had been dropped.

Impact

Hudema is known as one of the most prominent environmental activists in North America. Though he specializes in Canadian environmentalism, Hudema has helped organize protests in both Canada and the United States. His work continues to draw attention to the environmental damage caused by the Alberta oil sands and contributed to the eventual end of the Keystone XL Pipeline project. In 2014, he was named one of Alberta Venture’s “Top 50 Most Influential People.”

Bibliography

Cornwell, Steve. “PRESS RELEASE: Charges Dropped for High-Flying Ironworkers Memorial Bridge Activists, But Many Still Face Jail Time for Resisting Trans Mountain.” Greenpeace, 2018, www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/press-release/5442/press-release-charges-dropped-for-high-flying-ironworkers-memorial-bridge-activists-but-many-still-face-jail-time-for-resisting-trans-mountain/. Accessed 5 July 2023.

“Greenpeace Canada Peaceful Blockade of Oil Tanker Ends.” Greenpeace, 2018, www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/17625/peaceful-blockade-of-oil-tanker-ends/. Accessed 5 July 2023.

“Developer Officially Cancels Keystone XL Pipeline Project Blocked by Biden.” Reuters, 2021, www.reuters.com/business/energy/tc-energy-terminates-keystone-xl-pipeline-project-2021-06-09/. Accessed 5 July 2023.

“Keystone Pipeline Protest Nets 117 Arrests on Hill.” CBC, 2011, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/keystone-pipeline-protest-nets-117-arrests-on-hill-1.981642. Accessed 5 July 2023.

Nickel, Rod. “Greenpeace Plans More Actions in Oil Sands.” Reuters, 2010, www.reuters.com/article/us-oilsands-summit-greenpeace-idUSTRE62M5U020100323. Accessed 5 July 2023.

“The Disastrous Consequences of Tar Sands in Kanada with Mike Hudema.” The Beam, 2016, medium.com/thebeammagazine/mike-hudema-3a6aa2abf80f. Accessed 5 July 2023.