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BP runs to courts to prevent Greenpeace ship from protecting the climate

A Greenpeace inflatable in front of a BP oil equipment barge.

ALASKA - 9 August 2000, 4:30 pm local time -- Oil company BP today took out a restraining order against 25 people on board the Greenpeace ship, the MV Arctic Sunrise, to stop them protecting the climate. The Arctic Sunrise was blockading a 130-metre sea barge to prevent it docking at BP’s controversial Arctic oil project, Northstar. Greenpeace’s 50 metre icebreaker had positioned itself adjacent to the offshore drilling island to stop the barge from off-loading BP’s new control centre and accommodation module when BP served an injunction on the ship and its crew.

This peaceful action followed on from a two-day occupation of the barge by five Greenpeace activists, delaying it for 39 hours. The activists were later removed by Alaska State Troopers and BP security and are currently in custody.

If oil drilling from BP’s Northstar project is allowed to go ahead, it will fuel the dangerous problem of global warming, which is already causing severe meltdown in the Arctic. Northstar will also pave the way for further offshore oil expansion in the vulnerable Arctic Ocean.

Melanie Duchin, from Greenpeace Alaska on board the MV Arctic Sunrise said,

"BP has run to the courts rather than face up to its moral responsibility to the Arctic and the climate. Greenpeace isn’t about putting BP out of business but forcing them to make good on all their fine words about climate change and renewable energy.

We will comply with this injunction for now because our fight is with BP and not with the courts. We do not want to put money in the coffers of a company that persistently pours cash into speeding up polar meltdown rather than kick-starting a solar revolution. Our campaign continues and we will do everything we can to make sure this Arctic oil stays in the ground where it belongs.”

The Arctic is on the front-line of global warming by the burning of fossil fuels. The western Arctic is already warming three to five times than the global average. An area of Arctic sea ice the size of Texas has disappeared in the last 20 years. Marine mammals are under threat as the ice pack on which they hunt and breed melts away.

Despite BP’s frequent claims to be concerned about climate change, it has recently announced a 40% increase in oil and gas investment. The company has also aggressively promoted its solar division as proof of its green credentials but will actually be spending over 50 times more on oil exploration and production than on clean, renewable energy. BP has recently announced a new logo design, ironically of a sunburst, at a cost of US$100 million for this year, more than its total annual spend on renewables for 1999.

It would cost US$660 million to build one large solar factory to mass-produce affordable solar panels. BP’s Northstar is estimated to cost US$686 million. At this year’s AGM, an unprecedented 13% of BP’s investors voted in favour of BP cancelling Northstar and investing the capital in solar energy instead. Thirteen billion dollars’ worth of shares voted for the resolution and against the Board of Directors.

Today’s non-violent direct action follows years of campaigning by Greenpeace to halt BP’s Northstar oil development project. Greenpeace maintained a camp on the frozen Arctic Ocean for two months this past winter to protest against Northstar construction. Lawsuits are pending in US federal and Alaska State courts, challenging the project on a number of significant issues including water use, oil spills and cumulative impact of offshore oil on the climate and ecology of the Alaskan Arctic.

Duchin added,

"This is my fourth year here on board the Arctic Sunrise. I’ve seen the impacts of global warming on the ice, on the wildlife and talked to native people here whose culture and livelihoods are being jeopardised. BP must wake up to the fact that the cost of BP’s Northstar to the climate and the environment is far greater than the cost of stopping it now."

Melanie Duchin on board the MV Arctic Sunrise, +872 130 2577 or +872 324 453 810
Susan Cavanagh, Greenpeace Press Desk, +31 6 21296910

Photos available +31 653 819 121
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