Take action to stop oil exploration in the Arctic Ocean (Image: Peter Prokosch/UNEP - www.grida.no)
Nowhere else on the planet are the effects of climate change more visible than the Arctic Circle and the future of this fragile eco-system rests a on a knife edge. The ice cap is melting at an unprecedented rate, hunting and fishing has reduced some species of marine life to near extinction and habitat loss has displaced hundreds of polar bears and indigenous people.
However, while the ice cap melts, oil companies like Exxon Mobil and Rosneft are taking advantage of the waters once covered by ice and are moving in to the Arctic Circle in their search to drill for more oil – oblivious it seems to the irony that the use of fossil fuels is responsible for the melting in the first place.
Campaigners are concerned that an oil spill in this area would be impossible to clean up and following protests by Greenpeace, Cairn Energy an Edinburgh based oil company who are actively exploring the area, were forced to publish its oil spill contingency plans. And they don’t make good reading.
Given the freezing temperatures and fact that the region experiences perpetual darkness for half the year, Cairn admitted that if a spill were to happen in the winter months, recovery operations would grind to a halt.
Worse still, they admit ‘recovery rates will never be 100 per cent and are actually more likely to be around 10 to 20 per cent’. Despite this, they are continuing with their explorations and out of the six wells they have drilled so far, each one has turned up dry. This is good news, but only for now. Cairn show no sign of ceasing its search and it’s only a matter of time before they, or another oil company, strike black gold.
TAKE ACTION
Sign the Greenpeace petition to Greenland’s Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist, calling for him to protect the Arctic, shut down Cairn’s drilling programme and refuse to grant future drilling licences.
| READ MORE... | |
 |
NEWS ANALYSIS Arctic special Putin’s Russia will lead a ‘new era of Arctic industrialisation’ The isolation of the white wilderness is coming to an end. Scientists and activists are urging caution but Russia is leading an urgent rush to exploit the Arctic’s oil and gas reserves. Tom Levitt reports |
 |
NEWS ANALYSIS Arctic special How oil and corruption have become so closely linked As a new oil-fever gathers pace in Arctic countries such as Greenland the lesson from history is that where there is oil, corruption will quickly follow. Eifion Rees reports |
 |
NEWS ANALYSIS Arctic special Arctic will become 'more of a Mediterranean than a frozen border' The Arctic was once out of reach to anyone but intrepid explorers. Today it's a natural resource battle ground. Arctic expert Charles Emmerson tells the Ecologist what's changed |
 |
COMMENT Arctic special Why Arctic Ocean oil drilling is a risky choice It's not a question of ‘if' a major spill will occur in the Arctic, but ‘when and where', says conservation biologist and oil industry expert Rick Steiner |
 |
INVESTIGATION Arctic special Sami reindeer herders struggle against Arctic oil and gas expansion Climate change and a rise in oil and gas exploration are bringing a host of problems for the indigenous Sami reindeer herders in the Arctic regions |
