{"id":16063,"date":"2018-04-20T12:44:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T12:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=16063"},"modified":"2023-07-10T09:54:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T07:54:35","slug":"when-1-5-million-tonnes-of-oil-are-being-spilled-every-year-you-have-to-do-something-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/16063\/when-1-5-million-tonnes-of-oil-are-being-spilled-every-year-you-have-to-do-something-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"When 1.5 million tonnes of oil are being spilled every year, you have to do something about it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine living somewhere as beautiful as beside the Pechora river in northern Russia.  But when you see the unbearable destruction of oil spills in the area, you have to do something. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div>” alt=”Dead Forest in Komi Republic
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Denis Sinyakov \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-16064″\/>
Dead Forest in Komi Republic
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Last year, I joined a volunteer movement<\/a> that helps the Indigenous people who live in the Komi Republic to fight against the oil spills that are devastating this incredible landscape. I\u2019ve seen the lifeless sites of old oil spills, and new oil spilling out every day. Wells full of toxic waste are spilled into rivers, killing fish and poisoning the drinking water.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This situation terrifies me. Why do oil producers not think about the safety of people living nearby and the harm they bring to this world with their oil spills? It feels like they do it on purpose. Like a man being a wolf to their fellow man. It is insanely unfair.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div>” alt=”Volunteers clean up an oil spill in the Komi Republic
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Denis Sinyakov \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-16065″\/>
Volunteers clean up an oil spill in the Komi Republic
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019re doing everything we can to stop this. The <\/span>Save Pechora Committee<\/span><\/a> and Greenpeace Russia are working tirelessly to demand that oil companies reduce the amount of oil they spill and raise environmental and social standards. And that\u2019s why local people and volunteers are participating in the global movement to Break Free From Fossil Fuel<\/a>s this year.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This week, we organised a race from one settlement to another, to meet with local people and encourage hope for a better future without oil spills as part of the global movement to Break Free from fossil fuels. We call it \u2018Skis against oil\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"BreakFree
Skiing across the vast landscape of the Komi Republic
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

You might think that a small group of people skiing across northern Russia is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean consists of drops. Bringing people together to fight against a huge evil can only make us more powerful against it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Dmitriy Kanev, a member of the Save Pechora Committee, is one of those people. \u201cI joined the Save Pechora Committee because my heart bleeds over the contamination of our <\/span>rivers, lakes, forests\u2026 The more people we have in campaigns like this ski race, the more we will manage to help our nature, our children, ourselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"BreakFree
Skiers in the snow
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Fyodor Terentiev is a chairperson of the Save Pechora Committee, who spent summers at his grandfather\u2019s house in a small village called Pilyegory. \u201cHe taught me how to live in harmony with nature, what I could and couldn\u2019t do, which processes in nature could be interfered with and which ones couldn\u2019t at all; how and when we could hunt and fish.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cI still remember my grandfather\u2019s lessons. Later while working in oil field exploration, I could see how wildlife was being destroyed by hunters for oil, and local people were losing the ability to hold onto their traditional way of using natural resources. I just can\u2019t stay indifferent here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"The
Skis against oil
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Galina Chuprova, is a postmaster in a small village founded in 19th century by Indigenous herders, who joined the skiers. \u201cMy grandfather died in World War II. Not for the Communist party, but for defending his home and his family. Now the oil company Lukoil is another enemy that invaded our land and destroyed what we love and care about. Every inhabitant of our village must stand shoulder to shoulder to protect our land, our village, our children, ourselves. Otherwise, we’re nothing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Julia Lapshina is a #StopOilSpills Volunteer with Greenpeace Russia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bringing people together to fight against a huge evil can only make us more powerful against it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":16067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[87],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-16063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-oil","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16063"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59924,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16063\/revisions\/59924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16063"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=16063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}