At 4am local time the activists set off in three inflatable speedboats from the Greenpeace
ship Arctic Sunrise and scaled the platform via mooring lines. Six climbers have taken up
positions on the structure and have interrupted the platform’s operations. The activists are
out of reach and have enough supplies to last them for several days.
This is the second time Naidoo has engaged in direct action to oppose Arctic oil drilling.
The South African human rights activist boarded a drilling rig operated by British
company Cairn Energy off Greenland in June 2011.
Earlier this week, scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center predicted that
Arctic sea ice would soon match 2007’s lowest ever recorded extent before setting a new
record in September.
Speaking from a “portaledge” slung below the platform, Naidoo said:
“We climbed Gazprom’s rusting oil platform backed by over a million people who have
joined a new movement to protect the Arctic. We are here on their behalf. We are also
standing shoulder to shoulder with the Russian Indigenous Peoples, who just last week
signed a joint statement opposing offshore oil drilling in this area, which is near their
traditional territory.”
“Like Shell’s reckless plans to drill in Alaska, it’s not a question of if an oil spill will
happen, but when. The only way to prevent a catastrophic oil spill from happening in this
unique environment is to permanently ban all drilling now.
“This threat affects us all. In my home country of South Africa we are now facing a far
more dangerous climate because companies like Gazprom and Shell are pumping money
into politics and blocking clean alternatives so that they can extract the last drops of oil
left. We’re here in the Arctic to draw a line in the ice and say ‘you come no further.’”
An American climber named Basil Tsimoyianis, 25, from San Francisco, is one of the
climb team. He said:
“When people ask me why I’m going to the Arctic, I ask, why is anyone going to the
Arctic? The carbon logic doesn’t add up. Even if we exploit all the oil we’ve already
found, we’re still looking at serious impacts of climate change. The fact is, oil is running
out, and instead of going to the ends of the earth to suck out every drop of oil, we need
to leave some places alone and start to switch to renewable energy. We’re going in that
direction whether we like it or not. So I’m here taking action in the Arctic because I think
it’s time that we rise to this challenge and start exploring other options now.”
Russian energy giant Gazprom looks set to begin full commercial drilling operations by
early next year, becoming the first ever company to start commercial oil production in the
offshore Arctic.
Last week Greenpeace discovered that the Gazprom platform is operating without an
official oil spill response plan. Gazprom’s response plan was approved in July 2007 for a
period of exactly five years. The Russian Ministry of Emergency admitted to Greenpeace
in a letter that a new spill plan has been neither submitted nor approved.
The Arctic is one of the most extreme and hostile environments to drill for oil on the
planet. The Gazprom drill site is covered by thick sea ice for nearly two-thirds of
the year, whilst temperatures as low as -58˚F are not uncommon. The Pechora Sea is
often battered by fierce storms and during the long northern winter is plunged into
months of almost total darkness.
Despite such extreme conditions, Gazprom has only released a summary of its oil spill
response plan to the public. Yet even this document shows that the company would
be completely unprepared to deal with an accident in the Far North, and would rely
on substandard clean-up methods — such as shovels and buckets — that simply do not
work in icy conditions.
A full briefing on Gazprom’s Arctic oil drilling program can be viewed here:
A live ‘ticker’ of signatories to Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic campaign can be viewed at
www.savethearctic.org
ENDS
For more information or to arrange interviews with Kumi Naidoo, please contact:
Aaron Gray-Block, Greenpeace International media officer +31 64 616 2026
Myriam Fallon, Greenpeace US media officer 1-708-546-9001
Ben Ayliffe, Greenpeace International senior polar campaigner +44 7815 708 683
Vera Bakasheva, Greenpeace Russia head of pressdesk +7 903 219 3287
Greenpeace International Press Desk Hotline: +31 20 718 2470
Photo / video: Dannielle Taaffe, Greenpeace Video Desk, tel: +31 634 738 790
[email protected]
John Novis, Greenpeace International Photo Desk, tel: + 31 629 001 152
[email protected]
NOTES:
On August 14, Greenpeace Russia and WWF Russia released an independent report
commissioned from experts at the Russian center Informatica Riska, who developed
a computerised risk model of oil spill scenarios on the platform Prirazlomnaya, the
same platform the activists are now occupying.
The experts reviewed tens of thousands of possible scenarios and concluded that the area
of possible contamination covers over 140,000 square kilometers of open water, as well
as over 3,000 kilometers of coastline.
Also last week, Greenpeace International, along with the Save the Pechora Committee
and Iz’vatas, hosted a conference in Usinsk, Russia, to explore the impacts of Arctic
oil drilling on Indigenous communities. After hearing from speakers from Greenland
to the Niger Delta, the group of 30 representatives wrote and signed on to a joint
statement opposing offshore Arctic oil drilling, and demanding the government
consult with them for rights to drill on their traditional land. The joint statement
can be found here: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/
Indigenous_Peoples_statement.pdf
