The 20th April – the I Love Arctic International Day of Action – saw a sad looking polar bear on The Mound in Edinburgh. She was roaming the streets of Edinburgh as a symbol of what we stand to lose in the sensitive Arctic: firstly through continuing to allow unabated human-driven climate change; secondly through the dire ecological consequences of an oil spill in the Arctic (in the fairly-likely event that one will happen if Shell is left to go ahead with its plans to drill oil from the region).
The polar bear attracted hugs and kisses from passers-by who came up to talk about the Arctic and support Greenpeace's campaign to declare it a global sanctuary. Such a status would protect the Arctic (and the bear's friends) from oil drilling and over-fishing.
It is particularly important for the Arctic to get international protection because of our current ironic situation in which the Arctic, rapidly melting mostly because of continued fossil-fuel use, is in immediate danger of exploitation for further oil drilling. The situation is lunacy: not only have we already burned enough fossil fuels and put enough carbon into the atmosphere and ocean to guarantee the climate will warm to dangerous levels; we are now taking advantage of the damage we have done to the Arctic in order to find further oil to extract and burn! This is both directly exacerbating the problem and diverting political attention away from solutions: namely the rapid decarbonisation of societies and introduction of low-carbon energy sources.
Global protection of the Arctic is also important because, in Arctic conditions, an oil spill would be virtually impossible to clean up and would have devastating effects on the delicate ecology of the region.
Thanks to everyone who came and signed our petition to save the Arctic! Your signatures will be collated with others from people around the world, to show the level of international support for a global sanctuary in the Arctic. They'll be delivered to the Arctic Council when they meet on the 15th May in Sweden. For now, I think this photo just about sums up the urgent need to strive for protection of the Arctic.
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