Hanging in there - we're still on the Arctic oil rig

To Greenpeace : You live in countries with the worst black( oil), coal and radioactive concience.
Here in Greenland we live with af clean and pure green conscience.
Thats the diffirence.

Greenland are very ecological in their energy sources, which would suggest they care a lot about the environment - and then they do this staggering thing: they sell off their coastal environment to the very people likely to destroy it. If an oil spill occurs, Greenland's fishing industry will be ruined - and that is a very important aspect of their economy and food supply.

It strikes me as an awful shame that such an ecological country does something so un-ecological as selling licenses to oil companies.

Not only that, but anyone drilling in Arctic waters is taking liberties with something that does not belong to them, it belongs to the Earth and all that live on it. No amount of money spent buys you the right to the Arctic.

As always, thank-you Greenpeace, for having the courage to stand up and do something. It seems your work is often misunderstood, but then so were people like Mandela, and the World now recognises the amazing work he did. Stay safe and thank-you!

XXX

'Absolute garbage... Cairn continue about their lawfull business, your activists (law breakers) are but a minor irritation.'

Wow you must actually be on the rig itself Lappers to know that this direct action isn't working!

Get your head back in the sand with the rest of the morons who come on here hurling about at Greenpeace.

Lots of the comments have suggested that that the writer speaks for the public, but the truth is we have no way of knowing what "public opinion" is.
And there is the root of the problem, we should all have a say in how our planet is exploited, not just big business or the lobby groups.
Should a few people in Greenland "representing" a few thousand Greenlanders decide on the future of planet Earth?
Should it be up to Greenpeace to stop it, or should we have proper public debate and public decision making?
I'm not sure we could ever have either, but there must be a better way of deciding our future than the present "system".

In this very day is Greenland and its potentially óilreserves
is a possiple warranty for that this earth have oil until it finds alternative and green energy supply in large scale as Greenland it self do.
It is up to the population of the world to choose how fast it will go over to green energy, not 56.000 really Greenliving greenlanders.
And, for sure. Not 1 kilo oil is until now found, after 40 years search of oil in Greenland´s shores.
40 years where oildrilling have been done in peace from Greenpeace. Greenpeace just make a golbal shut down an arctic naitive, originally sustainable bussiness.
uU to this very day, families in Greenland have trouple provide theire families. Greenpeace have done nothing to stopl large foreign exploitation of arctic - greenland minerals and pollution of extracting them.

I'm not sure how Greenpeace can accuse Cairn and Stenna of being reckless when they are putting their lives, the Don's crew and the environment at risk with this action.

If the weather deteriorates they will not be able to get them off or move the rig whilst they're on it. So you risk the chance of freezing to death in heaving seas, a chance you're obviously willing to take (potentially endangering rescue teams etc). Not only that but in the worst case scenario blocking attempts to move iceburgs could result in the sinking of the rig.

I understand the issues here and yes we need to get off oil and gas eventually but Greenpeace just goes too far. I swear you're actually looking for martyrs. You could be risking far more that your own safety.

Greenpeace does it best work far away from danger at conferences and lobbying governments. I hope you don't get yourselves or the crew of the Stenna Don hurt, or damage the environment just for the sake of good pictures.

I hope "as long as it takes" isn't to much too far. Use some common sense please.

Hey Sim, see they started drilling again today..........

You ever thought of getting a proper job???

There's some comment about legal rights to drill - I question the law, not the right - just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's right, or safe, or sensible - think again.

Yes - Greenlanders can do what they decide for themselves, but it doesn't make that action right, does it?

I live a life which is enormously different to large parts of the world's population. I've benefitted from the development that my country has been through, in lots of ways. That doesn't mean it was a good thing to wreck the world I live in.

It's already too late to save most of the planet. Why risk the few pristine areas we have left? It is probably true that Greenland has a culture and society which is incredibly green, compared to the other places in the world. I've never been to Greenland so I don't know - but I'd love to see it for myself, sounds gorgeous. Why put that at risk? Doesn't make sense.

Think again about who is behind the agreement of Greenland to this exploitation - think about how influential they may be, compared to someone like me - I have a computer, but I can't talk to the Greenland Government to bend their ears about this - ask yourself who is talking to them (and why), pursuading them to do the things they do. It's not me. I think Greenpeace do a good job.

In the same way that I cannot avoid harming the envirnment, just by living in the country I do, people in Greenland cannot fail but to be more "green" than people in my country. I applaud the Greenland society for their achievement - I really do. But I implore you - hang on to this achievement, because once it's gone, it'll never come back - ever. Ever again. My country has lost all of that. I can't believe it, makes me sad.

On another score - I work hard for my living, I've achieved a great degree and MSc, I pay tax, I take part, I participate, I vote - and that gives me the right to have my say. The way the world works, though - chances are, noone will listen. I've seen enough to know how this works.

Try to think past the surface of what's going on here. What's really at stake, and who are the real stakeholders here?

What's at stake? Who's gambling with it? Can we ever get it back, once it is gone?

Come on then Greenpeace, where is your latest blog? Oh, nothing to report anymore? Better get baking that cake with a file in it and tell them not to drop the soap!

What happened to your hero's?? Probably heading to jail as we speak!!! Ha Ha.
LOSERS

****While we're attached to the rig, Cairn Energy can't continue their reckless drilling****

Absolute garbage... Cairn continue about their lawfull business, your activists (law breakers) are but a minor irritation. I suspect they are not feeling so clever this morning after a sleepless, cold and windy night with nothing more than the though of being arrested and carted off jail in the morning.....

Why do you keep telling lies to the public? It wasn't sub zero here last night and that's a fact because I've just finished night shift. Until now I had absolute respect for your organisation but witnessing firsthand the spin put on all of your reporting has made me question everything else I read from Greenpeace. You say you've stopped drilling in the Arctic but the Stena Forth is still drilling. You raise concerns of the danger icebergs pose to the drilling operations yet manoeuvre amongst them in order to try and project images onto them. “Our Captain navigated the ship into a perfect position for us – several times amid lots of small icebergs in the water”. Your hypocrisy is staggering. You risk your vessel for a photo opportunity; a small part of me wishes it had all gone wrong and the Navy had to come and save you. Perhaps launching a rib and projecting “Defining Stupid” on the hull of your rust bucket vessel would have been more apt. You are so misguided in your efforts. Reading earlier posts I’ve yet to see you provide any evidence off prior knowledge of the Dons’ activity before you began your illegal squat. For all you knew she could have been in a critical phase and your selfish actions could have jeopardised exactly what you are attempting to save. Your activism is short sighted, brimming with self congratulation and judging by all of the threads I’ve read doing more harm to your organisation than good. We all know that alternative forms of energy need to be found and the consumers more efficient but oil will still have a place in our future. Why don’t you address the root cause of the worlds problem that no organisation or government has the bollocks to address. There are too many people in the world and with the population expected to reach plague like proportions later this century, no matter how efficient we manage to make our everyday lives there simply won’t be enough resources for everyone. If you tackle the real issue I’ll become a subscriber but until then, shame on you.

Why not sent the Greenland premier an email. Visit the official government web site @ http://uk.nanoq.gl/Emner/News/News_from_Government/2010/08/greenpeace_ac... Or email him directly @ govsec@nanoq.g

The reality is that you and I need oil to live to day. With out oil the world will shut down this day. What a disarster it will be for all. I am more ashamed of so called "Green people" and Greenpeace folk live in industrialized countries, with all its comfort and luxury that you cannot be without. What I do not understand is that you do not choose to live in countries with most use of alternative energy. So called " Green people" write a lot about green conscience, but do not live it your own everyday life. There you have been to addicted to all the comfort and luxury, oil, coal and nuclear energy can provide. Just think about all the innocent animals " green people" eat every day broght up in hell on earth: in ironbars and boosted with medizine , a alot of it just thrown away by just abundance. Conversely, Greenland has a clean and a green conscience: Electricity in Greenland is Green and the green philosophy is practiced in its broadest concept. There are now cars with electricity make by electricity from hydroelectric plants. Animals who are caught to eat have live their whole lives out in the extremely beautiful nature in Greenland. No animals are feed up in iron cages, pumped up with drugs. Their are experiment with new and alternative arctic houses in high scientific level, of course, with solar energy. Over 75% use of green hydro power plants in Greenland(including theese hydroplant´s under construction), while there beginning efforts for hydrogen production from excess hydroelectricity, two provide green energy to the remote areas with no hydroplants. Hydroelectric plants in Grenland is provide from meltwater from the icecap and huge lakes from there and there are no swamp land. We also see Greenland experimenting with solar and wind energy too. Greenland is like Norway and Iceland Pioneers two develop green energy in huge and large scale and the administration and democracy is in same level of Scandinavia.

As I see it, Greenpeace is the only people telling that the rig is not drilling anymore. Are you sure ? How do you know ? As Lappers wrote - the acitvist might only be a minor irritation - why not keep on drilling on both rigs and ignore the four people sitting underneath the rig. Any other sources than Greenpeace telling that the rig has stopped drilling ? Anyone ? And again - no sub-zero temperatures, that is for sure...

More rubbish from Greenpeace: 'Cairn cannot continue drilling' - lies the operation now continues uninterupted 'Spent the night in sub-zero temperatures' - lies, temepratures were not sub zero here. Check the weather websites; I have. But more damning is still no response by Greenpeace to the following, previously posted, thread: RE; comments by web editor GPUK I refer to your totally inacurate comments: "As for the drilling, the Stena Don has not found oil, it hasn't even found gas - that was the Stena Forth, the drilling ship in the same area. No chance of a spill because of our action." The truth is that you do not know the status of this well and I challenge Greenpeace to provide the following information for the public domain: 1. What was the status of the well before Greenpeace invaded (as a minimum: depth, downhole pressure, gas concentration, etc) and how do you know that your intervention was not hazardous? Without this simple information you cannot know that it was safe to cause a suspension of the operation and your action was reckless. 2. How do you know that the Stena Don has not encountered gas/oil? The fact that a previous blog states that the Stena Forth has moved to a different location would indicate the exact opposite;ie the Stena Forth found nothing and has moved on but the Stena Don has. 3. Do Greenpeace have a Drilling Engineer onboard Esperanza advising them on the the technicalities and dangers of exploration drilling? This question has been asked previously and remains unanswered. 4. Can you provide evidence that the Rig Manager was advised of the impending invasion by your activsists? By law every vessel MUST advise drilling units before they enter the 500m safety zone to avoid conflicts of operation. This is a fundemental safety requirement which you have breached. The so called Captain of the Esperanza should be ashamed of himself; at the very least I hope the authorities suspend his certification (if he has any) due to this breach of a fundemental safety requirement. 5. If you have caused the suspension of drilling operations on the Stena Don how are they going to secure this well before the season closes? Do you not understand that you cannot just stop and leave a live well? Again I refer to your total lack of research and drilling knowledge. Do not assume that everyone supports your confrontational action (a quick look at your responses on this site will show you the real opinions). Come on Greenpeace, I challenge you to prove that you know what you are talking about, that you thoroughly researched the current status onboard Stena Don and that you have not caused a hazardous situation. And for the sake of clarity following previous insulting replies to my entries I would reiterate: I do not work for Cairn, or any other oil company. As part of my education and training (Geologist) I do have an in-depth knowledge of offshore drilling. I have young children and care about the environment as much as anyone.

This is straight up insane, good work guys I have never read anything like this keep posting quality blogs! http://undergroundleads.com/debt-leads.php

Firstly I would like to thank Greenpeace of increasing the risk of endangering the lives of those on the rig and the assosicated vessels and also for the familys of those climbers that are 'dangling' from the legs on the ballast on Stena Don. I cant imaging the fear and worry that these families are going through from the reckless actions Greenpeace have taken. From todays comments from various power figures in the Greenland's goverment and Danish Police/Navy, its appears that those involved in this will be dealt with in a manner that Greenpeace have never experienced before. You break the law you pay the price regardless of the intentions. Cairn energy will likely exercise's the right through the courts to invoice Greenpeace for the lost time and money due to their idiotic display of arrogance. Four days worth of protest is roughly £2million and if you do succeed in halting drilling as the winter ice closes in, Cairn Energy have the legal right seek compensation from Greenpeace and it will hurt, badly. Now on to clear up some points.... You said 'Lots of the comments have suggested that that the writer speaks for the public, but the truth is we have no way of knowing what "public opinion" is'. Actually your wrong on this account. Most of the posts on your website are against the action that Greenpeace have taken even to the point where a member has now left your organisation over the sabotage of Cairn Energy's legal operation. How many others have/are doing this? Of all the places for you to recieve praise, one would have thought it would be Greenpeace's website, but no. You said 'And there is the root of the problem, we should all have a say in how our planet is exploited, not just big business or the lobby groups.[edit: isnt Greenpeace a lobby group too?] Should a few people in Greenland "representing" a few thousand Greenlanders decide on the future of planet Earth?' We do have a say, its what goverments are supposed to be for and thankfully those in Greenland have democratically elected this goverment. They are having a say in this as if they didnt like the prospect of oil companies drilling in Disko bay and the surrounding area then they would not have elected Kuupik Kleist to be their Prime Minister. This 'exploring for oil' has been debated for decades and they have decided as it is their consitutinal right to do resume offshore drilling activities to the benefit of the Greenlanders. Who are we to deny their perfectly legal businesses are not allowed to take place especially when we in the UK are and have enjoyed the spoils of oil exploration for decades? Hypocritical dont you not think? These Greenlanders are doing what is best for them in the best possible way by adopting the Norwegian Standards for offshore drilling which, as I can testify, is the most stringent in the world! So stringent that you can't even fart without having to do a risk assessment!!! But lets be clear here, dont not confuse what went on in the Gulf of Mexico with what is going on in Greenland. It is very well known that the Gulf of Mexico (and America's drilling practice in general) is sadly lacking well behind Europe in terms of safety, environmental impacts, care of duty etc which finally but very sadly resulted in 11 deaths, countless and unessacery loss of wifelife and habitats. I dont understand why the risk of drilling deep water outweights the risk of drilling in shallow water or on land? The risk are monumental in deep water Yes we have had our own catastrophies with the Piper Alpha being the one that sticks in peoples mind the most as 167 souls lost their lives but we learned from that and have continued learning from that expereice. Oil companies DO NOT EVER want a repeat 1988 and as such impliment such strigent procedures and risk assessments (in the offshore waters of the UK, Holland, Denmark, Germany and Norway) that the chances of a disaster occuring are mitigated to the lowest possible chance. This includes our impact on the environment. If you that concerned about environmental impacts of the oil industry I suggest you direct you energy towards Nigeria.... But in anwser to your question should a few people who have no legal right too be deciding what a country whom they have no ties with can and can not do? You said 'Should it be up to Greenpeace to stop it, or should we have proper public debate and public decision making'? No its should be a public debate for certain, Greenpeace has no right to stop legal companies performing perfectly legal operations. There is a way of highlighting things without interfering in other peoples operational activities whether that be lobbying, street demonstrations/protests etc etc but certainly not sabotage. You said 'I'm not sure we could ever have either, but there must be a better way of deciding our future than the present "system". Well lets face it, you not going to get the oil companies to stop exploring in Greenland especially when they have been invited by the goverment to do so for the full benefit of the Greenlanders and close by countries. So in keeping with Greenpeace's tradition of saying stop and offering no real alternatives, im going to say stop the sabotage and think of something else to highlight your point. Waffle over for now ;-)

Hey!! Funny thing is we are no longer to post comments on the latest news from 'Sim'. Why could that be????

At last a well thought out response from an obvious loyal and honest Greenpeace supporter. I admire your commitment, and educated argument, and would enjoy to debate this further. I don't think that you would be suprised to find that I agree with many of your points. However the argument here is: Do Greenpeace have the right to embark on this hazardous campaign to attract publicity? They do not. The following is from the Guardian (hardly a lover of 'Big Oil') and outlines the general consensus that this is a low point for Greenpeace and their action is illegal, unconstitutional and without support: 'The Prime Minister of Greenland has accused Greenpeace of threatening the safety of oil workers and the environment after four activists forced a controversial deep-sea exploration rig in the Arctic to shut down today [operations have since resumed and continue uninterrupted]. Just before dawn, the four campaigners used three high-speed inflatable boats to evade the Danish navy before clambering on to the British-owned rig and slinging mountaineering-type platforms beneath it about 15 metres above the sea. The raid forced the Edinburgh-based oil exploration firm Cairn Energy to suspend drilling, escalating tensions between the Greenlandic government and Greenpeace. Kuupik Kleist, the government's socialist prime minister, denounced the campaigners' actions, claiming they were damaging the economy of the country, now largely independent from Denmark, and ignoring the strict environmental and safety regulations Greenland had imposed on oil companies. "This is clearly an illegal act, ignoring the rules of democracy," he said in a statement. "The cabinet regards Greenpeace's action as very serious and an illegal attack on the country's constitutional rights. It is worrying that Greenpeace, in their hunt for media exposure, violate security rules made to protect human lives and the environment." Morten Neilsen, deputy police chief for Greenland, said rescue vessels were standing by in case any of the climbers fell [putting themselves at risk]. He said all four would be arrested and prosecuted. Cairn Energy argues that Greenpeace has exaggerated the significance of its exploration and its risks. There are two major oil and gas fields already in the Arctic, at Sakhalin in eastern Russia and Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, providing 10% of the world's oil.' I sincerely hope that loyal, level headed Greenpeace supporters like yourself put your organisation back on the right track

Is hanging by their nails under an oil rig and over turbulent waters, trying, as usual, to send a message to the world that we don't want to devastate our planet in order to live here. More power to you guys. We need you and your CIVIL disobedience. To the naysayers, Necessity is the Mother of Invention - so start inventing! Where's all the big ideas? Fix your problems with new solutions! Stop counting on our Mother Earth to provide more than she has for your expensive tastes. Thank you, Greenpeace.

Where is todays blog? I was so looking forward to it. I guess that you will put this down as a failure then? We will hang in there for as long as it takes - oops that wasn't long then - but then again it didn't achieve anything did it? One thing that Greenpeace have omitted to answer is how they can show that they did not endanger people. If this rig was drilling, then it could be encountering gas or oil at any time. Greenpeace claim that the rig had not encountered either gas or oil, yet claim that it was drilling until they forced it to suspend its operation. These two claims do not go together, if they had not encountered and would not be about to they surely were not drilling. Reckless behaviour that endangers the environment and life should be dealt with by way of a long jail term.

In this beautiful spot and heaven of the almighty soil and waters of Greenland are Greenpeaces real wictims: The children and young, where their parents have lost their only income opportunity in one of the most expensives country to live in. Greenpeace has removed it from a global shut down of an arctic profession seal fansgt. This day the tree last years sealskind sold from the hunters families to the abroad: 0 (Zero). Until october no slae opputunity, after october the sale opens, but only with support from the greenlandic goverment. Here the second time Greenpeace tries to hit the Greenlandic people again, perhaps because of Greenland need for new income options or alternatives to sealhunting because Greenapeace have removed their bussines from Greenland. As long as Greenpeace dont participated and come with new alternatives for new income for Greenland, as long may Greenland try to find new income opputunities. Greenland has a clean and a green conscience: Electricity in Greenland is Green and the green philosophy is practiced in its broadest concept. There are now cars with electricity make by electricity from hydroelectric plants. Animals who are caught to eat have live their whole lives out in the extremely beautiful nature in Greenland. No animals are feed up in iron cages, pumped up with drugs. Their are experiment with new and alternative arctic houses in high scientific level, of course, with solar energy. Over 75% use of green hydro power plants in Greenland(including theese hydroplant´s under construction), while there beginning efforts for hydrogen production from excess hydroelectricity, two provide green energy to the remote areas with no hydroplants. Hydroelectric plants in Grenland is provide from meltwater from the icecap and huge lakes from there and there are no swamp land. We also see Greenland experimenting with solar and wind energy too. Greenland is like Norway and Iceland Pioneers two develop green energy in huge and large scale and the administration and democracy is in same level of Scandinavia. Go out and tell the rest of the world of Greenland efforts in Greenpeace´s main goal. This will help inspirering the world to do the same and go further away in what world have in its veins to day : Black oil. But as long as the world need and demand it´s black oil in it´s vein, as long will it try to find oil on this Earth. There is only one way to go. Follow Norways, Icelands and Greenlands efforts to be green countryes in latge scale.