Polar bears are starving, walrus and caribou are declining, and the Arctic ice pack is melting away: scientists are warning that rising temperatures from global warming are damaging the fragile Arctic systems that wildlife and northern communities rely on.
Oil giants like BP Amoco want to open a whole new off-shore oil frontier by drilling under the shrinking Arctic ice pack. This further contributes to global warming and threatens to cause oil spills in this vulnerable region.
Greenpeace are fighting to stop the development of Northstar - BP Amoco's proposed offshore field in the Beaufort Sea, a part of the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. We want to draw a NO NEW OIL 'line in the ice' in the Arctic and start the race away from dangerous fossil fuels.
BP's Northstar field would be the first to use and under water pipeline to bring oil ashore from below the Arctic ocean. Construction of ice roads is already underway , and work on a gravel drilling island and pipeline is planned for early 2000. In harsh, usually ice bound conditions, the chance of environmental damage including oil spills or other accidents is very high.
Alaska is already warming three times faster than the earth as a whole. The signs of Global warming are every where as sea ice retreats, forests are overwhelmed by multiplying insect outbreaks and the ground literally collapses as the frozen permafrost melts.
Globally, human beings cannot afford to burn more than a small fraction of the existing reserves of coal, oil and natural gas if we want to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. So it makes no sense to drill for more.
Underwater pipelines constructed below the seabed have never been used in the Arctic, and for good reason. The pipeline will be subjected to the usual stresses and strains and occasional failures associated with pipelines (642 reported spills totalling 1.2 million gallons have been reported by the Trans-Atlantic Pipeline since it opened in 1977). The pipeline will also be at risk from potentially unstable permafrost, and from gouging and scoring by ice as it moves and piles up throughout the long Arctic winter. Northstar would be located in an area of the Arctic ocean that is either frozen solid or in 'broken ice' condition for approximately ten months of the year, and in an area that is subjected to prolonged periods of darkness during the arctic winter.
Spills are virtually inevitable: US Federal government agencies estimate that there is an up to 1 in 4 chance of a major spill over the life of the Northstar project. BP Amoco and the government submissions admits that they will be largely unable to clean up contain oil spills in this extreme yet vulnerable environment; and the worst case scenario, a blow out during broken ice conditions, could have catastrophic consequences for generations.
Visit the Arctic action web site at: http://www.greenpeace.org/arctic/ and join thousands of other cyberactivists and take part in web-based initiatives to help protect the global cimate and stop off shore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
If you own shares in BP Amoco go to Greenpeace's special web site for BP Amoco share holders http://www.sanebp.com and contact BP Amoco directly and tell them about your concerns.
Look out for the Edinburgh Greenpeace Campaign Group Northstar stalls from Feb to mid March and sign our petition stickers.