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Greenpeace petitions to “save the Arctic”

Environmental activists Greenpeace have launched a campaign aimed to “save the Arctic. “Greenpeace is campaigning for the United Nations to declare the Arctic ocean a sanctuary, much like the Antarctic.

Over 50.000 had signed the petition on Friday.

Although the Arctic is an ocean, surrounded by countries, the opposite of the Antarctic which is a continent surrounded by oceans, Greenpeace is adamant the Arctic needs to be saved.

“The Arctic is under threat. As you read this, oil companies and politicians are plotting to carve up the icy north, extending their national territories and searching for drill sites. But with your help, we can draw a line in the ice and put the Arctic out of the polluters’ reach – forever,” the Greenpeace website reads.

Greenpeace is aiming for a million signatures on their website and already have the backing of several famous people, among them Paul McCartney, Penelope Cruz and Robert Redford.

Before Greenpeace has criticized the ongoing Rio+20 summit as an “epic failure”.

“The fightback starts here,” said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International to the BBC. “The Arctic is coming under assault, and needs people from around the world to stand up and demand action to protect it. A ban on offshore oil drilling and unsustainable fishing would be a huge victory against the forces ranged against this precious region and the four million people who live there.”

This is not the first petition to “save the Arctic,” proposals date back to the 1970s, but have never gained political traction.

In 2007, acting under instruction from Moscow, explorer Artur Chilingarov planted a Russian flag on the seabed beneath the pole, laying claim to the area.

The Greenpeace action aims to counteract that by planting a scroll signed by at least a million people in the same place, claiming it as a sanctuary.

Source

Greenpeace

BBC

June 22, 2012
Greenpeace fools oil company executives

Greenpeace fooled oil company executives into a meeting to lecture them about exploration. A real meeting was held, but the executives were directed to another location.

Hoping to hear about oil exploration in Greenland in a seminar held by Greenland’s Raw Materials Directorate, 18 executives were fooled.

As they entered an elevator to go to the correct Directorate meeting on the fifth floor, friendly (Greenpeace) assistants advised them that the meeting had been moved to another room on the fourth floor – which Greenpeace had hired for the occasion.

For 15 minutes the executives listened to a Power-Point presentation on why environmental organisations are against exploration and extraction in Greenland.

Greenpeace even provided coffee, tea and croissants.

It was not until the final slide of the show that those listening became aware of the fact they had been duped by Greenpeace which also had activist outside the building protesting.

After the presentation, activists thanked the oil companies and left the building.

Oil companies attending the initial Greenland Raw Materials Directorate meeting were Shell, BP, Nuna Oil, GreenPex, Kogas, DCE, TBS, ComcaPhilips, Wintershell, Apwadarko and Statoil.

Source: Politiken

Greenpeace fooled oil company executives into a meeting to lecture them about exploration. A real meeting was held, but the executives were directed to another location.

Hoping to hear about oil exploration in Greenland in a seminar held by Greenland’s Raw Materials Directorate, 18 executives were fooled.

As they entered an elevator to go to the correct Directorate meeting on the fifth floor, friendly (Greenpeace) assistants advised them that the meeting had been moved to another room on the fourth floor – which Greenpeace had hired for the occasion.

For 15 minutes the executives listened to a Power-Point presentation on why environmental organisations are against exploration and extraction in Greenland.

Greenpeace even provided coffee, tea and croissants.

It was not until the final slide of the show that those listening became aware of the fact they had been duped by Greenpeace which also had activist outside the building protesting.

After the presentation, activists thanked the oil companies and left the building.

Oil companies attending the initial Greenland Raw Materials Directorate meeting were Shell, BP, Nuna Oil, GreenPex, Kogas, DCE, TBS, ComcaPhilips, Wintershell, Apwadarko and Statoil.

Source: Politiken

December 2, 2011
Greenpeace activists on Arctic oil rig arrested

The Danish navy has reportedly confronted and arrested a crew of two environmental activists “occupying” a 53,000-ton offshore oil rig in a “survival pod” hanging from the Cairn Energy oil rig, about 100 miles off the coast of Greenland, the non-governmental organization Greenpeace announced late Wednesday via prepared statement.

The anti-Arctic development group vowed to “continue their campaign after climbers believed to be from the Danish navy arrested an occupation team. “The world’s had its eyes on the activists for about a month, since the team occupied a British offshore oil rig, the Leiv Erikkson, as it made its way north. After that failed, Greenpeace decided to continue to follow the rig, reporting that since last Sunday two activists had been successfully dangled from the “survival pod” underneath it.

According to the press release from Greenpeace, “a climb team operating from the rig broke into the pod–hanging 25 metres over the freezing Arctic Ocean–and arrested” the pair, one from England and the other from the U.S.

“Our [Greenpeace] climbers are in jail now, but this won’t stop us opposing the madness of drilling for oil that we can’t afford to burn and in a region where a spill would be almost impossible to clean up. This isn’t over. We must keep on pushing till the oil companies get out of the Arctic,” the press release said.

Greenpeace said in a web posting that it had delayed drilling, which must occur within a narrow window due to harsh weather conditions in the Arctic region, but Cairn Energy denied this.

A Cairn Energy spokesman said there had been “no impact on schedule.”

Cairn Energy is leading a charge into offshore Greenland, which explorers believe could hold billions of barrels of oil. Exxon Mobil, Husky Energy and others also plan to drill there. However, following BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill concerns about the difficulty in tackling offshore spills has increased and environmental campaigners have made Arctic drilling a key battleground.

The Danish government is preparing to claim the North Pole for the Kingdom of Denmark, along with other areas of the Arctic, much of which is believed to be rich in oil and gas resources. New shipping routes, including the fabled Northwest Passage, are becoming accessible and thus exploitable as the Arctic ice recedes. This could become extremely beneficial for the Greenlandic society.

Source: Alaska Dispatch
Greenpeace

June 3, 2011
Greenpeace activists cling to Arctic drill rig

On Sunday Greenpeace activists climbed up an oil rig off Greenland’s coast in an attempt to stop the Scottish oil company, Cairn Energy, from starting deepwater drilling in the arctic waters. The activists arrived at the rig in inflatable speedboats launched from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, which had avoided a Danish warship shadowing them for days.

The environmental group said the activists scaled the Cairn Energy rig early Sunday and are now hanging under it in a “survival pod”, which is occupied by two Greenpeace members. It said the group has enough food and water to stay there for 10 days. Cairn Energy had earlier this month won permission to drill up to seven oil exploration wells off the Arctic island’s west coast.

Greenpeace has criticized Cairn, which is the only company drilling in the area, for not taking the extra precautions needed to avoid accidents such as the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The company has said that they “seeks to operate in a safe and prudent manner” and pointed out that authorities in Greenland have established stringent operating regulations, similar to those applied in the Norwegian North Sea.
Greenpeace said it hopes the action can stall Cairn’s plans to complete the exploration before winter, forcing the company to abandon the search for oil for another year. for they claim that if drilling is delayed for just a short time, Cairn could struggle to meet a tight deadline to complete the exploration before winter ice closes in, forcing it to abandon the search.

Cairn Energy is currently the only company drilling in the area, but Greenpeace has warned that an arctic oil rush could be set off if the company strikes oil this summer.

“We are preventing it from drilling because an oil spill up here would be nearly impossible to deal with due to the freezing conditions and remote location,” States Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe. “A BP-style blow-out off the Greenland coast would make the Deepwater Horizon clean-up look simple.”

Greenpeace activists also climbed aboard the Leiv Eiriksson rig when it left a port in Istanbul in April, but were forced to abandon that protest due to bad weather. Last year, activists also tried to stop drilling in the area by climbing onto Cairn’s Stena Don rig.

Source: physorg
Greenpeace

May 31, 2011