Today is World Environment Day, and to celebrate Greenpeace was in Ottawa this morning to deliver a message to Prime Minister Harper: protect the Arctic now!
A recent poll of Canadians commissioned by Greenpeace found that 80% of respondents supported the idea of creating a sanctuary in the uninhabited region around the North Pole. These results show strong support for the concept of an Arctic sanctuary among Canadians.
We released the polling results today—on World Environment Day—to coincide with an in-person delivery of more than 100,000 petition signatures to the Prime Minister’s Office with an Earth cake that shows the proposed sanctuary in the Arctic Ocean. Unfortunately, the cake was not accepted by the PMO, so staff and volunteers handed out slices of cake to passers-by and chatted about Arctic issues.
While the Canadian government focuses on an ‘oil-at-any-cost’ and anti-environmental approach to the Arctic, many others are pushing for greater protection. Dozens of Indigenous organizations and leaders — including two Permanent Participants on the Arctic Council — have already expressed opposition to Arctic oil drilling and support for enhanced Arctic protection, as stated in the International Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic. Just last month the European Parliament passed a resolution supporting the creation of an Arctic sanctuary, and last year Finland publicly announced support for the concept, the first Arctic country to back the call. High profile celebrities, scientists, academics and faith leaders, including Canadian author Margaret Atwood, former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu rallied behind a call for urgent Arctic protection by adding their names to the International Declaration on the Future of the Arctic.
Sadly, despite widespread calls for a saner approach in the Arctic, the Harper government does not seem likely to change its course anytime soon. So we need your help to show the government how truly deep and widespread concern for the Arctic and its peoples is.
We are asking ordinary people like you to reach out to leaders and prominent individuals in your community—politicians, teachers, spiritual leaders, writers, business people, celebrities, and so on—and ask them to sign on to the International Declaration on the Future of the Arctic. This campaign is called Act For Arctic, and it’s happening all around the world.
If you think you might be interested in being an Act For Arctic community campaigner, you can sign up and get more info at actforarctic.org. For the sake of the Arctic, and all of us, we hope many of you do.