Action against oil exploration in the Arctic was unrelenting this August and there will be no letting up in the months to come. From confronting ships conducting seismic testing in the Russian Arctic to calling out Shell on its logo slathered winners podium at the Belgium F1 Grand Prix, Greenpeace is focused on getting global awareness of the dangers of Arctic drilling and the devastating results of climate change caused in large part by burning fossil fuels.
The August Photo of the Month by Will Rose shows the MV Arctic Sunrise entering the Northern Sea Route in the Russian Arctic where global warming has opened up a short cut for shipping between the Northern Pacific and the Northern Atlantic and enabled the giant oil companies to partner up with the worlds least safety conscious business Rosnef to exploit the resources of the fragile Arctic to top off their already staggering profit margins.
In front of the Greenpeace ship, activists hold a banner in an inflatable boat reading in Russian Save the Arctic. A simple message that Greenpeace is saying over and over in hundreds of languages, in hundreds of locations, in hundreds of ways because what becomes of the Arctic will become of the rest of the earth. It is vital to our survival.
In defiance of the International Law of the Sea, the Russian Coast Guard forced Greenpeace to protect its crew from the threat of being fired upon by leaving the Kara Sea, but Greenpeace will be back wherever possible to confront the insidious disaster of Arctic oil drilling.
A Greenpeace sign reading “Save the Arctic” mixing the head of a polar bear with Shell’s logo appears in front of the podium at the F1 Belgian Grand Prix
On Sunday, people will take to their bicycles in 75 cities in 30 countries around the world, to mark the sea ice minimum, the time of the year when the ice has melted the most around the North Pole. This year won’t beat 2012’s all time record minimum when the sea ice retreated to the lowest level in history, but it will be in the top 10 minimum years along side recent years as undeniable climate change transforms the Arctic environment. If the oil companies get their way, they will transform it into a polluted wasteland like the other regions on earth where they have left their mark.
