On the 11th of July 6 women climbed the tallest building in western Europe to send a message to the world the we need to Save The Arctic. The Arctic is threatened by the warming of the Earth's climate, as a result of our continued burning of fossil fuels which are releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The Greenpeace campaign is not focused on this, as for this warming to slow down or even stop we would all need to drastically change the way we live our lives, the campaign instead is focused on making the Arctic a sanctuary that will be safe from multinationals such as Shell that wish to exploit the it's resources.
There are thought to be vast reserves of oil in the form of deep sea wells, under the Arctic waters that the oil companies are looking to exploit. Shell tried and failed to reach these wells last summer and after a catalogue of disastrous events the US administration revoked their drilling licences, so they have now entered into a partnership with Russian oil giants Gazprom who themselves have a leaky reputation. In this partnership Shell is being allowed to drill exploratory wells in the Russian Arctic as they are the only company that has the equipment to drill for oil in such a hazardous environment. Shell may be the considered to be the best equipped to drill for oil in the Arctic, but as you can see from the following report the best in this industry is a very low standard, A Timeline of Shell's Arctic Drilling Debacle in 2012.
A blow-out like the one that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 would be almost impossible to stop because of the very low temperatures of Arctic waters, any oil spilt in the Arctic environment would be very difficult to clean up, and the harm to ecosystems is likely to be unprecedented. This is the main concern of Greenpeace and other organisations that are seeking to make the Arctic a protected zone.
6 Climbers climbed a very tall building to raise the profile of this issue, countless Greenpeace volunteers all round the world give up their spare time to campaign on street corners in order to Save The Arctic WHAT WILL YOU DO?
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