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Greenpeace Activists Arrested After Abandoning Occupation of Arctic Oil Rig
Severe weather forces campaigners to give up their perilous position on British-owned rig off the coast of Greenland
Greenlandic police arrested the four after high winds buffeted the Stena Don drilling rig overnight, forcing them to abandon mountaineering-style platforms they had suspended by ropes underneath the platform less than 48 hours earlier.
Morten Nielsen, deputy head of Greenland police, said the four men were rescued between 8pm and midnight local time last night using baskets and ropes lowered from the Stena Don's deck after severe winds and waves up to 6m (18ft) battered the platform.
He said it took about four hours to retrieve the protesters, who have now been arrested under Greenlandic regulations for breaching the 500m safety zone around the rig and under Danish criminal law for trespass.
"Basically we were readying ourselves for any eventuality but it worked out, what needed to be done was a rescue operation," said Nielsen.
He also revealed that the police seized Greenpeace's helicopter, which had flown from its protest ship the Esperanza to photograph the rig and Cairn's operations to stop nearby icebergs, yesterday in the town of Qeqertarsuaq.
He said the helicopter had been impounded as evidence, and also to ensure Greenpeace paid any fines or liabilities for its protests in Baffin Bay, which began 11 days ago. The four protesters will make their first court appearance in about 24 hours, after being transferred from the rig to the town of Aasiaat. The four could also be deported, instead of being prosecuted.
The activists' retreat is a setback for Greenpeace, which believed a longer-term occupation of the rig would be a serious blow to attempts by the Edinburgh-based exploration firm Cairn Energy to strike oil or gas before the intense Arctic winter sets in.
However, sources in the region had predicted when the four protesters clambered on to the platform at dawn on Tuesday that severe weather forecast for early this morning would cut short their occupation.
Greenpeace has warned that if Cairn strikes oil or gas, it will provoke an "oil rush" in the vulnerable and unspoilt waters of the Arctic as the world's largest oil firms exploit one of the world's largest untapped reserves.
Cairn Energy said drilling had resumed as soon as the four were arrested. Industry experts had denied the campaigners' claims that a delay of four or five days would have seriously damaged the drilling operation; the company had built delays and unscheduled stoppages into its schedule.
The four are now expected to be prosecuted by Greenlandic police, but Greenpeace said said it would now widen its campaign against deep sea drilling by taking the British government to court.
The group has sent the government a "letter before action", accusing ministers of issuing new licenses for deep sea drilling in British waters before they had found out exactly what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
John Sauven, Greenpeace UK's executive director, said: "Our climbers have stopped this rig from drilling in the fragile Arctic for two days, and this is just the start of a long campaign. The world needs to go beyond oil, but here in the UK the government is waving through applications for new drilling as if the Deepwater Horizon explosion never happened.
"The Gulf of Mexico disaster was a game changer, so ministers should suspend new deep water licences and companies like Cairn Energy must stop dangerous drilling in the Arctic and start investing in clean alternatives instead."
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6 Comments so far
Show AllWhat oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico ?? I haven't seen anything on the news lately about any oil spill...I thought that must have been a rumor, because no body is talking about it anymore, and it is as if it never happened. I hope that Hurricane Earl hits the East Coast, and dumps all that oil on some big city there. I wonder how quickly they will repair the East Coast from Hurricane damage, compared to how they helped the Gulf after Katrina...I bet they will be all over their "white cities" to fix them up quickly ! If oil gets dumped there ,they will say it wasn't B.P.'s ,and Americans taxes will pay to clean it up.
Thank you GreenPeace for fighting on the Planets behalf...nobody else is...
NYC would be a good landing place.
To Greenpeace, ...thanks guys/gals for yet another successful action bringing to our understanding, the seriousness of our misuse of oil, and our insidious dependency.
Which brings me to another subject, ...people criticizing GP for using diesel to run their ships.
No one at Greenpeace ever said to completely stop using oil. That would be catastrophic to our economy, ...especially when everything we own once came by truck, and used oil in doing so. It is impossible to live without oil and continue to feed the rest of the world. So we do the best we can to do the things we need to do. I'm sure Greenpeace weighs the use of fossil fuels, as opposed to not doing anything at all to bring to the light, our waning resources, and the crucial need to encourage renewable energy as much as possible. In Amsterdam they encourage their employees to travel to work by bike, and Greenpeace is building a new Rainbow Warrior, that will also be powered by wind. But you cannot go to the Antarctic, or to northern Greenland by sail, you have to go by diesel power. It is imparative Greenpeace bears witness to these atrocities that would otherwise continue on without limits or public awareness.
Thanks so much you guys for this awesome and stunning action on the rig, in offices, and to you Junichi and Toru, hoping and praying for some sense of justice in your upcoming verdict Monday, ...wishing you all Love and Light
Too bad this brave GP action was cut short by ever increasing wierd weather! Irony is the currency of the day.These corporate oil goons should expect more civil disobedience as the energy and climate crisis deepens. International investment firms, not tied to the US, are abandoning fossil fuels and investing in sane and sustainable energy production suchas wind and solar.China is producing the majority of solar panels sold in the west! I live in a southern county with high unemployment and dozens of empty factories. Scary Barry Obama better turn this sinking boat around,NOW! The best bet is a dedicated 1% gas tax dedicated to alternative energy start ups. Germany did this 10 yrs. ago and is now 80% carbon neutral. The tax would consevatively raise 30 billion $ per year, and could be used as an "insurance fund" for low interest loans to alternative energy companies. A similar proposal died a quick death in congress last year, but I think that recent events [the gulf] have focused the issue. The hubris of the status quo must go!!!
Greenpeace activists get arrested while Blackwater mercenaries get bigger contracts and more leeway to kill, rape and pillage. Such is the world we're living in today. Orwell himself couldn't have imagined this.
Thank you Greenpeace for trying, and hope the legal process is not too hard on you guys. Thanks to you, we know that "Greenland" is not that green, even in its early days of its "sovereignty" - proof that there is no great vision behind this "sovereignty" sham. What's worse, all this is being done to support a population of 57,000 when the scientists and environmentalists are warning the rest of the world about the glaciers in Greenland. What a shame!