12 August 1998
Answers from the Ice Edge: The consequences of climate change on life in the Bering and Chukchi seas
Greenpeace and Arctic Network, release today the first ever compilation of Alaskan Native testimonies on the impacts of climate change in the Western Arctic. The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reports that the Western Arctic already is warming at 3-5 times the global average rate. Answers from the Ice Edge puts a human face on what global warming means to people and communities in the Arctic.
Click here to download the report in Adobe Acrobat format. You can download Acrobat Reader for free from the Adobe website
6 August 1998
Despite concerns voiced by the Clinton Administration about global warming, Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbit will announce today the opening of approximately 20 percent of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve to new oil exploration (an area the size of Indiana). The entire Reserve encompasses a vast area of rolling foothills, wild rivers and extensive coastal plain wetlands that provide habitats for waterfowl, caribou, Arctic peregrine falcons, beluga whales, polar bears and other wildlife.
Although the amount of oil reserves in the area to be leased is unclear, the US Government estimates that between approximately $500 million to $2.2 billion US dollars worth of oil is to be found in the area to be leased. The area is also believed to hol d substantial reserves of coal and gas.
The Reserve was closed to oil leasing until 1980 when Senator Ted Stevens attached a rider to a Department of Interior appropriations bill. The rider not only opened up the largest block of federally owned land in Alaska but also provided that 50 percent of the royalties from any oil extracted go to the State of Alaska (rather than to federal coffers).
A peer-reviewed report prepared by Industrial Economics and released by Greenpeace in June 1998 estimated that oil companies operating in the US receive between $5 and $35 billion US dollars in subsidies each year. (for more information, click here)
The last round of leasing, held in the 1980's resulted in six oil companies receiving the vast majority of leases: British Petroleum, Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), Texaco, Chevron, Shell and Exxon.
Greenpeace is currently conducting an expedition to document the impacts of climate change in Alaska and the Western Arctic, an area of the world which is heating up at approximately 3 times the global average rate.
We oppose new oil development in the Arctic because the world can only afford to burn approximately 25 percent of the known reserves of fossil fuels in order to avert dangerous climate change. To search for new oil, in the face of climate change, doesn't make sense.
This decision again highlights the obvious contradictions between Clinton's rhetoric on climate change and the reality of his oil and energy policy.
Read the Background briefing paper on the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
ACTION ALERT: Send a message to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt
11 June 1998
BP (British Petroleum), ARCO and CHEVRON want to open up the Arctic Ocean to oil and
construct a series of offshore oil wells in the ice-bound waters of the Beaufort Sea
These companies - led by BP - want to transport the oil ashore through pipelines buried
beneath the seabed. BP's Northstar is the first of these projects.
On June 1, The US Army Corps of Engineers published a Draft Environmental Impact Statement
(DEIS) for the Northstar Project".
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have the right to comment on this document. Click here to make your
contribution to the fight against global warming and for the protection of the Arctic.
9 June 1998
The US government is massively subsidizing one of the major causes of climate change, the burning of oil, according to a new report released by Greenpeace International.
The report "Fueling Global Warming: Federal Subsidies to Oil in the United States" by
Douglas Koplow and Aaron Martin of US economics consultancy company Industrial Economics
found that the US government provided up to $11.9 billion in subsidies to the US oil industry in 1995 excluding the cost of defending the Persian Gulf oil supplies. Including defence costs, the subsidies figure rises to $35.2 billion.
Report "Fueling Global Warming: Federal Subsidies to Oil in the United States":
To view .pdf files download the Adobe acrobat Reader 
2 June 1998
North American glaciers are retreating and thinning significantly following rapid increases in regional temperature and are likely to have a large impact on global sea level rise, a US glacial expert working with a Greenpeace expedition said as international climate protocol negotiations begin in Bonn.
Read the Press release
