CHICAGO (AFP) - Greenpeace activists were arrested Wednesday for scaling Mount Rushmore and hanging a banner next to the carved face of Abraham Lincoln urging President Barack Obama to get tough on climate change.

A video posted on the environmental group’s website showed the massive banner hanging on the South Dakota mountain face.

Its message -- “America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming” and an unfinished portrait of Obama -- was barely visible as it was whipped by wind.

“Doing what it takes to solve global warming demands real political courage,” Greenpeace USA deputy campaigns director Carroll Muffett said in a statement.

“If President Obama intends to earn a place among this country’s true leaders, he needs to show that courage, and base his actions on the scientific reality rather than political convenience.”

The protest comes as Obama meets with other G8 leaders in Italy. G8 leaders agreed to bear the brunt of steep global cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, saying developed countries should reduce their pollution by 80 percent by 2050, a summit declaration said.

Greenpeace said the 11 climbers “took special care not to damage the monument, using existing anchors placed by the National Park Service for periodic cleaning.” Park officials said they were still investigating whether the iconic monument—a restricted area which is closely monitored—suffered damage.

“Early this morning visitors saw these individuals on the mountain,” said Amy Bracewell, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service. “They got up next to Abraham Lincoln and unfurled the large banner,” she told AFP. “As soon as our people were mobilized we took down the banner and apprehended them and got them safely down the mountain.”

In this picture provided by the environmental group Greenpeace, Greenpeace climbers rappel down the face of Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, S.D. on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 to unfurl a banner that challenges President Obama to show leadership on global warming. Obama is at the G8 meeting in Italy to discuss the global warming crisis with other world leaders. A federal prosecutor says a dozen people were taken into custody on Wednesday after the incident. (AP Photo/Greenpeace, Kate Davison)

See how the environmentalists including the Mt. Rushmore protestors think that the stinking pile of manure that is Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Tax did not go far enough in this New York Times story.