{"id":7022,"date":"2015-09-30T01:28:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T01:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.p4.greenpeace.org\/post\/you-did-it-shell-abandons-arctic-drilling\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T17:37:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:37:02","slug":"you-did-it-shell-abandons-arctic-drilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/7022\/you-did-it-shell-abandons-arctic-drilling\/","title":{"rendered":"You did it! Shell abandons Arctic drilling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This week Shell\u00a0<\/strong>announced plans<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to abandon its Arctic oil drilling operations. This is huge.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

From activists who scaled<\/a> Shell\u2019s rig in April or who stopped<\/a> one of Shell\u2019s ships this July, to the millions of people all over the world<\/a> who signed petitions, paraded with polar bears, shared stories and helped organise for real environmental justice, this is YOUR victory. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Jason White \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Jason White \/ Greenpeace” alt=”Protest against Shell at Fredericia in Denmark
\u00a9 Jason White \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Jason White \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-14380″\/>
Protest against Shell at Fredericia in Denmark
\u00a9 Jason White \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The cost of Arctic drilling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Shell claims that the amount of oil it has been able to find isn\u2019t worth the high costs<\/a> of what has been one of the most dangerous and expensive projects in the history of fossil fuel extraction (for both the company\u2019s wallet and reputation<\/a>). The company has already spent upwards of US$7 billion trying to find oil in the Alaskan Arctic, but the environmental costs of Arctic oil are even higher.<\/p>\n\n

In the US, President Obama\u2019s own administration estimates that there would be a 75 percent<\/a> chance of a disastrous oil spill if Shell got what it originally wanted.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Mark Meyer \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Mark Meyer \/ Greenpeace” alt=”Shell protest in Unalaska
\u00a9 Mark Meyer \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Mark Meyer \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-14382″\/>
Shell protest in Unalaska
\u00a9 Mark Meyer \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

And it\u2019s not just the risk of an oil spill that\u2019s alarming. The Arctic acts as the world\u2019s air conditioner by reflecting sunlight off sea ice and keeping the oceans cool. But that sea ice is melting, and the region is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world.<\/p>\n\n

Climate change in the Arctic is already leading to people being displaced from their homes<\/a>, polar bears<\/a> starving and mosquito swarms<\/a> getting so huge that they have become deadly for caribou. Drilling for and burning more fossil fuels is the exact wrong response to climate change.<\/p>\n\n

Why Shell called it quits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Shell found evidence<\/a> of oil in the Arctic, but it still decided not to drill. The Financial Times reports<\/a> that Shell has privately admitted that it didn\u2019t expect so much public opposition. And in Shell\u2019s own statement<\/a> on why the company decided to abandon its Arctic drilling operations, the company cites a \u201cchallenging regulatory environment\u201d as one key reason for halting its search for Arctic oil. You<\/em> challenged them.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Jiri Rezac \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Jiri Rezac \/ Greenpeace” alt=”Giant Polar Bear Aurora at Shell HQ in London
\u00a9 Jiri Rezac \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Jiri Rezac \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-14383″\/>
Giant Polar Bear Aurora at Shell HQ in London
\u00a9 Jiri Rezac \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Shell was used to breezing through important environmental regulatory processes without a scratch, but this time people were watching. All year, comments poured in<\/a> to the US government from around the world as millions of people asked President Obama\u2019s administration to pull the brakes on Shell\u2019s drilling.<\/p>\n\n

It wasn\u2019t President Obama who showed real climate leadership here. It was you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Together, you turned what the oil industry hoped would be a small business story into front page headlines. Together, we demonstrated that people have the power to fight companies and governments who consistently value corporate profits over the health of our planet.<\/p>\n\n

The fight isn\u2019t over. While Shell has backed away from the Arctic, the region still doesn\u2019t have the protection it needs. We will continue working to keep Shell and all other oil companies out of the Arctic for good and to demand a global sanctuary in this fragile region that will protect it from further destruction.<\/p>\n\n

Let\u2019s turn this victory into permanent protection for the Arctic. Are you in?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n

April Glaser is a Mobilization Specialist at Greenpeace USA.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

A version of this blog<\/a> was originally posted by Greenpeace USA.<\/em><\/p>\n

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From activists who scaled Shell\u2019s rig in April or who stopped one of Shell\u2019s ships this July, to the millions of people all over the world who signed petitions, paraded with polar bears, shared stories and helped organise for real environmental justice, this is YOUR victory. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7023,"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":[69,70,73],"tags":[65,85,87,89],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-7022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-nature","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-energy-revolution","tag-oceans","tag-oil","tag-climate","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7022","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7022"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78126,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7022\/revisions\/78126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7022"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=7022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}