For sale: 44m acres for oil drilling, but not if Louisiana's Bucket Brigade can help it

Hundreds of protesters may not have been able to stop the Gulf of Mexico lease sale but storming a meeting of executives made their message loud and clear

On 23 March, around 300 protesters in New Orleans aimed to shut down a reading of oil company bids for 44m acres (180,000 km^2, the size of the entire state of Missouri) in the Gulf of Mexico.

At grassy Duncan Plaza near New Orleans city hall, groups from all over the southern US gathered for a protest called New Lease on Life. "I have really bad sinuses and I hate smoke," said 18-year-old Howard Johnson. The young activist from Biloxi had boarded a bus and rode for hours to be in New Orleans by sunrise to join dozens of other members of green coalitions, local churches and members of the Houma Indian Nation.