A SHELL petrol station on a cold, grey morning is not the most enticing of sights but that is the sight we laid eyes on as we rounded the corner in our Greenpeace tabards, leaflets in hand. We were there because Greenpeace is campaigning against Shell’s proposed drilling in the Arctic. Greenpeace New Zealand activists have set up camp atop the derrick of Shell’s Noble Discoverer drillship, currently at Port Taranaki in New Zealand waters, preparing to set forth to disrupt the Arctic - all in the quest for ever more wealth. Shell is the first oil company to make drilling for oil in the Arctic its focus and if it gets away with it, if we all pretend we cannot see or compute the dangers, then the rest will be in there like flint and the Arctic will be ruined. With dollar signs ablaze at the thought of new reserves, oil companies will be squabbling to get their claws into the ice and rip it asunder to reveal the black gold beneath. But what lies beneath the ice of the Arctic is inextricably intertwined with what lies on the ice above it, beside it. You cannot tamper with one level without unhinging the balance on all levels. People live in the Arctic, other animals live there and what about the nature of the Arctic, its pristine grace and beauty – do none of these things matter when greed blurs the big picture? And that big picture includes sea patterns, weather patterns.
What happens if, in the frenzy to bring oil to the surface, we have another oil spill? How to clean that up under Arctic conditions? The answer – Shell won’t be able to. They will say they can but they cannot. It is not feasibly possible for them to do so in the limited and restricted operating conditions they will be enduring.
So we use oil and there is oil to be found – for Shell and other companies and for many people it seems inordinately logical to exploit the oil, keep the wheels of industry well … oiled. Yet surely we know by now the time is ripe to find cleaner sources of energy, less morally repugnant ways to go about doing things. How about if Shell, instead of spending millions wending its drill ships all those miles to the frozen Arctic, instead used that money to come up with constructive alternatives? And come on, polar bears – they are beautiful animals. Better looking than most of us humans, wouldn’t you say? Why should they die just so more of us can further pollute the planet? Does that seem right? We share this planet with other species. When did it become ours alone to do with as we please? Or rather, when did it become the plaything of multinational, megalithic corporations, run by business tyrants with questionable aesthetic values? What about the people who live there? What say do they get in having their environment squandered so others can have more of what they already have?
Standing in the cold handing out leaflets, enduring the hostile glares of those who think no further than their next purchase, seems a tiny price to pay to try and get the message across – we need to save the Arctic! We need to say “No! You cannot just rape this place! We will protect it!” We stood leafleting today at Shell stations in Hastings and Peacehaven but seriously, it is time to stand up and be counted and really get this show on the road!!!!!
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