by Lucy Lawless
My heart was pounding as we made the ascent and my mouth was dry. I felt shell-shocked for half an hour after we reached the top. We have just scaled a 60 metre tower and the wind is buffeting us on all sides. I’m writing this using a small laptop we’ve brought with us.
I’m safe, I’m ok, my carabiners are sound, but it was pretty scary! I think I’d rather be home with a latte, but I don’t feel that I had a choice.
Instead of seeing the melting of Arctic sea ice as a dire warning to humanity, the oil barons are cynically using it as an invitation to dig up more of the stuff that caused the problem in the first place. This aging rust bucket, the Noble Discoverer (more like the Ignoble Destroyer), is one of the oldest drillships in the world and it will be spearheading Shell’s crazy foray into the dangerous and pristine Arctic.
Despite admitting to woefully inadequate means to deal with oil spills, Shell is proceeding, determined to be “the first” in the Arctic.
Clearly in a cost/benefit analysis, Shell reckons that an Arctic spill is an acceptable risk to them.
But make no mistake, due to the harshness and remoteness of the Arctic environment, an oil spill up there will make the Gulf of Mexico look like a children’s party.
An oil spill under the ice could rage for years before they could cap it. The plankton that prop up the whole ecosystem would die and the ripple effect would be heinous.
Who died and made the oil barons God?
Don’t they want their kids to grow up in a world where polar bears and the magical narwhal still exist?
Unless we stand up now, I fear our grandchildren will condemn us for our laziness, our stupidity and our cruelty.
We have the technology and the know-how for a clean and viable future. Inevitably, we must more to a clean energy economy.
Let’s do it while there is still an Arctic left to save!
– Lucy
