The problem

Our hundred year reliance on oil is at a turning point. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico put the spotlight on the far reaching consequences that our addiction to oil is having on the natural world and on the climate.

Today, oil is being used to power most of our vehicles, making us all dependent on it in some way - to get our food, to see our loved ones or to go on holiday. There are millions of cars, buses, trucks, ships and planes moving around our cities, our country, oceans and skies, connecting people and moving stuff around the world. But all of these vehicles need millions of gallons of oil to keep them going every day. And that’s taking a toll on the air we breathe, on our energy security, our economy, the environment and our climate.

But the giant oil fields that the industry hoped would last forever are starting to run dry. Faced with increasing restraints on access to the easy oil, companies are pushing in to areas previously considered too inaccessible, expensive or too risky to exploit. And this means going to greater and greater extremes to squeeze the last drops of oil from the earth - scraping the barrel in the tar sands of Canada, potentially violating the fragile ecosystems of the Arctic and now the pristine coastlines of New Zealand

This map shows current and proposed areas of oil exploration, drilling, and coal mining, and the climate-changing potential of those coal deposits. *The size of the oil deposits – and so the amount of potential CO2 emissions - within the new permit areas and block offers is not yet known.

If these places are exploited, and the oil burnt, we will be on track for a six degree rise in global average temperatures. Two degrees is generally accepted by scientists and governments as the tipping point of dangerous climate change. Scientists say a rise of six degrees in average global temperatures would have cataclysmic and irreversible consequences for the planet and threaten our very survival. This is the path we are on right now. But if we transform our transport and energy systems this doesn’t have to be the pathway we follow.

At the moment, millions of dollars of our money is going into subsidising risky oil, and keeping us stuck in the oil age. Our governments are propping up the oil companies with tax breaks and subsidies, and they’re allowing oil companies to exploit our natural world. In the long run, our addiction to oil will cost us far more.

If we do nothing, climate change will cost us around 20% of total gross domestic product (GDP) over the next half century. That's more than the cost of both world wars and the great depression put together. But if we act now to mitigate it, the cost would only be about one per cent of total economic growth. That's the same amount of money we spend on global advertising. Surely our survival is more important than billboards and TV adverts.

The latest updates

 

Busting the Oil and Gas industry’s Alternative Facts about Jacinda’s offshore oil...

Blog entry by Andrew Tobert | April 20, 2018

After Jacinda’s historic announcement that brought an end to new offshore oil and gas exploration, we’ve been hearing a lot from the industry about how the sky is about to fall in. Fun fact: it isn’t. In fact, stopping offshore oil and...

Big oil is destructive in more ways than one

Blog entry by Bunny McDiarmid | November 13, 2017

This September I took my first trip to Russia to join the celebration of Greenpeace Russia’s 25 Year Anniversary. In big cities like Moscow, oil powered transport is a major source of pollution and greenhouse gases emissions. This...

Chevron's Amazon Chernobyl Case moves to Canada

Blog entry by Rex Weyler | September 19, 2017

After perpetrating what is probably the worst oil-related catastrophe on Earth - a 20,000 hectare death zone in Ecuador, known as the “Amazon Chernobyl” - the Chevron Corporation has spent two decades and over a billion dollars trying...

11 things political parties should do now if they are serious about climate change

Blog entry by Kate Simcock | August 31, 2017

It’s the greatest challenge of our time and also a huge opportunity. Climate change is not merely an ‘environmental’ issue. It’s an existential threat to all aspects of our society and way of life. Acting now is a moral choice we must...

With love from the Arctic

Blog entry by Lizzie Sullivan | August 18, 2017

Greenpeace kayakers have stopped an oil rig drilling in the Norwegian Arctic. I know, because I’m there right now. My name is Lizzie. I’m a web developer from New Zealand, and I’m here on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise with...

Cease and desist message delivered to seismic blasting ship

Blog entry by Kate Simcock | January 13, 2017

Amazon Warrior, this is the Margaret Mahy . Do you copy? The world's biggest seismic blasting ship - the Amazon Warrior, AKA the 'The Beast' - is exploring for oil in the seas between Kaikoura and Napier. Despite the...

Why we are taking Arctic oil to court

Blog entry by Ingrid Skjoldvær and Truls Gulowsen | October 25, 2016

With this historic court case a new generation is now taking action to stop oil companies from kidnapping our future.  Nature & Youth and Greenpeace Nordic, alongside a broad coalition, have filed an unprecedented people-powered legal...

Our Government, the blockheads. Again.

Blog entry by Sophie Schroder | September 20, 2016

The New Zealand Government is pleased to announce that next year they’re keen to open more than 500,000 square kilometres of our ocean for oil companies to survey and drill, including parts of the marine mammal sanctuary, home to the...

Sailing to the Arctic with the people who call it home

Blog entry by Farrah Khan | August 26, 2016

The courageous Inuit community of Clyde River is standing up to protect their Arctic home from devastating seismic blasting. The circumpolar Arctic is home to four million people representing a diversity of cultures. As...

Budget 2016: If you don’t laugh you’ll cry.

Blog entry by Russel Norman | May 27, 2016

This budget shows that the Government’s fossil-fuel driven extractive industry based economic strategy is a slow moving train-wreck. After proclaiming in previous years that industrial dairy, coal, and oil would be the economic...

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