It’s
official. On Friday, Shell got a step closer to drilling for oil in our
planet’s last wild ocean - the Arctic.
The
company’s oil spill response plan for the Chukchi Sea off Alaska was
given the all clear by US authorities, even though it’s a work of almost
complete fantasy.
While
Shell prepares to start trashing this stunning wilderness, putting it at risk
of catastrophic oil spills and more melting as a result of more climate change,
its PR people are getting busy. This evening, they’ve invited influential
guests to an event at the National Gallery in London, in the hope that those guests will lend the Shell brand a veneer of respectability.
We’ve
decided to tell their guests the truth: this year Shell is planning to drill for
oil in the pristine waters of the Arctic, and its plans will change this
fragile wilderness forever.
So
our climbers have made sure that guests at the National Gallery are met with an
unexpected picture when they arrive; a short while ago, they evaded security and are preparing to
unfurl a huge banner with the words “It’s no oil painting”. Our climber Hannah
is tweeting from the rooftop using the hashtag #SaveTheArctic.
Meanwhile, Paula Bear has emerged from her wintry den to mingle with the crowds in
Trafalgar Square, where dozens of Greenpeace volunteers are talking to curious
passers-by.
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Shell sees the Arctic as a resource to be exploited for profit. We think it should be protected. What do you think? Join the discussion on our blog and on Twitter: #SaveTheArctic.
Polar
bears – like other Arctic species including beluga whales, narwhals and
walruses – are already under severe pressure in the Arctic from climate change.
In just 30 years, the Arctic has lost 75% of its sea ice, and temperatures in the Arctic are rising faster than
anywhere else on Earth.
While
more and more people recognise the changing face of the Arctic as a stark
warning about climate change (earlier today, several scientists gave evidence
to this effect to the parliamentary inquiry, Protecting the Arctic), Shell sees
the melting ice as a business opportunity – a chance to drill in newly
accessible areas to find more of the oil that caused the melt in the first
place.
And Shell's plans pose a new threat to the Arctic’s stunning – and ecologically
fragile – coastlines and oceans: the threat of a catastrophic oil spill, which
would be impossible to clean up.
Shell is just first of the so-called
‘supermajors’ - the big oil companies - to make exploitation of the Arctic a key part of their
strategy. But if it strikes oil this summer, other global oil giants may follow.
Shell
sees the Arctic as a resource to be exploited for profit. We think it should be
protected. What do you think? Join the discussion on our blog and on
Twitter: #SaveTheArctic.