Green Peace claims to have shut down offshore drilling by a British
oil company at a controversial site in the Arctic after four climbers
began an occupation of the rig just after dawn.The environment
campaigners said the four protesters evaded a small flotilla of armed
Danish navy and police boats which have been guarding the rigs in Baffin
Bay
off Greenland since the Greenpeace protest ship Esperanza arrived last
week.
The rigs are operated by the Edinburgh-based oil exploration
company Cairn Energy, which last week prompted world-wide alarm among
environmentalists after disclosing it had found the first evidence of
oil or gas deposits under the Arctic.Several multinational oil
companies, including Exxon. Chevron and Shell, are waiting for
permission from Greenland to begin deep sea drilling in the Arctic’s
pristine waters.Campaigners claim this led to a dangerous rush to
exploit one of the world’s last major untapped reserves in one of its
most fragile locations.
The U.S. Geological Survey last year estimated
there may be 90bn barrels of oil and 50tn cubic metres of gas across the
Arctic.The campaign group said: “At dawn this morning our expert
climbers in inflatable speed boats dodged Danish Navy commandos before
climbing up the inside of the rig and hanging from it in tents suspended
from ropes, halting its drilling operation.
“The climbers have enough supplies to occupy the hanging tents for
several days. If they succeed in stopping drilling for just a short time
then the operators, Britain’s Cairn Energy, will struggle to meet a
tight deadline to complete the exploration before winter ice conditions
force it to abandon the search for oil off Greenland until next
year.”The occupation comes after a nine-day stand-off between Greenpeace
and the Danish navy, which has sent its frigate Vaedderen to the area,
deploying elite Danish commandos on high-speed boats to patrol a 500m
exclusion zone around the rigs.Last week the Danes warned the Esperanza
it would be forcibly boarded and its captain arrested if it breached the
security zone.
After Greenpeace launched its helicopter to take
photographs, the security area was extended to include a 1,800m high air
exclusion zone.Greenpeace argues the Arctic drilling programme is
extremely perilous because of the sea ice and intense weather conditions
in the region, and claims it is one of the 10 most dangerous drilling
sites in the world. The Baffin Bay area is known as “iceberg alley”.
Last week, it filmed a support vessel trying to break up an iceberg
using high pressure hoses.It says the risks posed by this operation go
“far beyond” the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico;
in the Arctic an oil spill would destroy the region’s vulnerable and
untouched habitats, while the cold water would prevent any oil from
quickly breaking up.
Any emergency operation to tackle a disaster would
encounter huge technical and logistical problems in such a remote
area.Cairn Energy was targeted by climate protesters who occupied the
grounds of the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters near Edinburgh last
week. Cairn’s offices in the city centre were smeared with molasses to
symbolise oil.The company argues it is there at Greenland’s invitation,
to help bolster and strengthen the island’s economy.
It also insisted
its drilling operations obeyed some of the world’s strictest
environmental and safety regulations. “We’ve put procedures in place to
give the highest possible priority to safety and environmental
protection,” it said.It emerged last week that BP had withdrawn from
applying to join in the Greenland oil exploration programme, a direct
consequence of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.Sim McKenna, one of the
Greenpeace climbers on board the Cairn rig, said: “We’ve got to keep the
energy companies out of the Arctic and kick our addiction to oil,
that’s why we’re going to stop this rig from drilling for as long as we
can.
“The BP Gulf oil disaster showed us it’s time to go beyond oil. The
drilling rig we’re hanging off could spark an Arctic oil rush, one that
would pose a huge threat to the climate and put this fragile environment
at risk.”
Morten Nielsen, deputy head of Greenland police, said the
four protesters would be arrested and prosecuted. “The position of the
Greenlandic police is that this is a clear violation of the law, the
penal code of Greenland. The perpetrators will be prosecuted by the
Greenlandic authorities,” he said.“But what we intend to do, how and when, is an operational detail it
wouldn’t be smart to advise Greenpeace about.” Speaking from the
island’s capital, Nuuk, Mr. Nielsen confirmed the police had rescue
vessels close by the protesters in case any fell into the water, which
was only a few degrees above freezing. He denied the police and navy had
been outwitted by the protesters setting off at dawn.
“We have to evaluate the downside of any interception,” he said. “The
highest value we have to preserve is life and if the result of
intercepting the Greenpeace activists would bring the police or for that
matter the activists’ lives in jeopardy, we are not going to intercept
right now.” In a separate development, two protesters on trial in
Copenhagen for terrorism-related offences during the U.N.
Climate summit
last December have been cleared. Of the nearly 2,000 people arrested, a
small number, which includes 13 Greenpeace activists, are still
awaiting trial.The original charges facing Natasha Verco and Noah Weiss
included organising violence and significant damage to property and
carried a maximum 12-and-a-half-year sentence. Those charges were
subsequently reduced to less serious offences, but today (31AUG) a court
in Copenhagen cleared the pair entirely.Ms. Verco, who was arrested
while riding her bike near the Copenhagen lakes and held in prison for
three weeks, said: “I’m so happy, it’s so wonderful... The whole
experience has been appalling, terrifying, something I never expected.
To be imprisoned for three weeks on the most ridiculous accusations, and
then to have to wait for nine months to be acquitted, it’s made me see
Denmark very differently.”
Information Brought to you by :
Traffic Pulse
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100421111353.htm
