Bear Sightings
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Bertha Bear and her whole family have left the Arctic sea ice on a world tour to save their homeland. With the Arctic sea ice melting rapidly because of global warming, Bertha and her fellow polar bears have a strong message to bring to the world: the main cause of global warming is burning oil, and BP Amoco must halt construction of Northstar, the first oil project in the Arctic Ocean, and transfer the funding to clean, solar energy instead. | |||||
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Latest Sighting
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| Uncle Ursus dancing with Climate Campaign coordinator Janet Dalziell before he was arrested while visiting the BP barge. |
10 August 2000
London
During the hot summer months, we polar bears don't usually do very much, lounging on the tundra and waiting for the sea ice to come back. But Greenpeace has been very active, and has boarded a BP barge delivering drilling equipment and accomodations for the Northstar project. They stayed aboard the barge for 39 hours, occupying the Northstar control and communications centre, and set up solar and wind generation. Eventually Alaska state troopers and BP security stormed the barge, and arrested everyone, including my Uncle Ursus, who had just dropped in to visit the activists! Later on, the Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise blockaded the barge and stopped it from docking at Seal Island.
I missed all the excitement, because I went back to London to speak to staff at BP headquarters. We handed out copies of the Arctic Action game, which allows you to help us polar bears to throw snowballs at BP offshore drilling rigs. We also talked to the staff about BP's new rebranding exercise and what we think BP really stands for. It certainly isn't "Beyond Petroleum"!
Past Sightings
26 January 2000 Phew, it's warm. Well, we've done it. The whole family has left our home on the Arctic Ocean and set off on a world tour to warn people about BP Amoco's Northstar project. Our first stop was to visit BP Amoco's world headquarters and help Greenpeace in the UK with its launch of a shareholders resolution for the BP Amoco AGM on April 13. Greenpeace has teamed up with the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) and more than one hundred shareholders to form SANE BP - Shareholders Against New Exploration. SANE BP argues that the world can't burn even a quarter of the world's reserves of coal, oil and gas without causing catastrophic rates of global warming. So it's insane to explore for more. Since our home is rapidly melting away, we'd certainly agree with that. In fact, we'd join SANE BP if polar bears were allowed to buy shares! |
2 February 2000 It was too early for Cherry blossoms in Washington, but then we were there for another reason: the Federal Trade Commission was discussing the merger of BP Amoco and Arco. These two companies are the biggest bullies in Alaska, and we hated to think what BP Amoco would do to us polar bears if they got together! Besides, BP Amoco has already spent about twice as much on the legal fees to buy Arco as they did on solar power last year. We think that they should be focussed less on causing global warming and the Arctic meltdown and more on solar power. |
Chicago I can't believe it - today we were arrested! And for what? Setting up a solar powered camp outside BP Amoco's US headquarters in Chicago. We thought that BP Amoco might welcome the camp, seeing how they always emphasize their commitment to clean energy. And since BP Amoco is building the Northstar project right next to our home in the Arctic, it seemed only fair that we should be able to set up a camp next to BP Amoco's home in the US. But BP obviously didn't see it that way. Greenpeace used the solar powered system to play a video message from their Ice Camp Sirius on the Arctic Ocean. While we were waiting in jail, it was good to think about our home on the Arctic Ocean and the Greenpeace activists who are fighting to protect it. |
23 March 2000 Tonight we were at the most elegant social event in London. Lucky us bears are always dressed in black and white! BP Amoco sponsored the reopening of Tate Britain, London's leading art gallery to the tune of 30 million pounds. I think that they were a bit disappointed that we crashed their party. We got to meet lots of famous people at the Tate reopening, including Madonna, Richard Attenborough and a whole bunch of British politicians that we had never heard of in the Arctic but Greenpeace's UK office assured us were important. Or used to be important. I can't remember. We got a great reception at the Tate, and Greenpeace gave out hundreds of "Cheer up a bear" stickers. Even the two doormen at the Tate wore lapel stickers! |
24 March 2000 Today, after a quick transatlantic flight, we polar bears took Manhattan! We started out with a solar powered visit to BP Amoco's office on Madison Avenue. Then we went over to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. I know that there are plenty of Bulls and even a few Bears on Wall Street, but I bet they's never seen Polar Bears before! We even got out to some investment firms and told them about the resolution to stop Northstar that will be voted on at the BP AGM on April 13.
5 April 2000 In our second visit to Washington, we dropped in to say hello to Tony Knowles, the governor of Alaska. I'll bet Governor Knowles was surprised to see polar bears in the US Congress! While we were there, Greenpeace gave the Governor the BP Amoco Employee of the Year award, "For consistently placing the interests of BP Amoco over the future of Alaska's environment". Since Governor Knowles bent a lot of tax and royalty laws to smooth the way for Northstar and was in Washington to help BP lobby for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, the award was well deserved. Too bad that us polar bears don't get to vote - Governor Knowles might be singing a different tune if we could!
13 April 2000 The big day has finally arrived - BP's AGM in London! Greenpeace worked hard to get shareholder support for Resolution 12, asking that the money spent on Northstar and BP's plans to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be transferred to a factory that would mass produce solar panels. When we went into the AGM, we had the votes for the shares held by the nice people at Trillium Asset Management, SANE BP,and a few US NGOs. Maybe a million dollars worth of shares all together - a lot for a few polar bears, but peanuts in the eyes of BP. BP doesn't allow polar bears into its AGM, so we stayed outside talking to passers-by, but I hear Matthew Spencer of Greenpeace UK and Athan Manuel of the US Public Interest Research Group both gave passionate speeches calling on the assembled shareholders to support Resolution 12. When all the votes were counted, we had the backing of 1.491 billion shares, worth $13.5 billion US dollars! Back in the Arctic, icebergs have nine times more ice under water than above water, but at the AGM, we found out that we had about thirteen thousand times more support than we had realized! The Greenpeace staff were almost speechless for a few minutes - a rare occasion I should add. BP is really going to have to start listening to us now that we have the support of so many important investors. We're going back to the Arctic for a while, but we are really grateful to Greenpeace for setting up Ice Camp Sirius and organizing our tour. Working together with Greenpeace and all of you, we're starting to make a difference! |
