Greenpeace - Climate Campaign - Arctic

The Facts

The western Arctic, including Alaska and northwestern Canada, is warming at a rate three to five times faster than the Earth as a whole. Significant impacts in the Arctic have already been observed for:

sea ice,
glaciers,
forests,
wildlife, and
indigenous people.

This changing climate has implications far beyond the Arctic.

The continued release of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels will cause catastrophic rates of climate change in only a few decades if current trends continue. Fortunately, clean, carbon free renewable energy sources such as solar and wind are readily available.

Nevertheless, BP Amoco is moving forward with its plans to drill under the melting Arctic ice pack and construct Northstar, the first offshore oil project in the Arctic Ocean. Greenpeace has used every legal means possible to stop this project.

Factsheets

(Please visit our archives and summer ice-edge webcasts as well.)

Polar Meltdown The Arctic ice pack is melting. The natural air conditioning system for much of the Earth has shrunk dramatically in both thickness and extent over the past 40 years. Thickness has declined by more than 40 percent over the past 40 years, and the extent of pack ice older than one year has declined by 14 percent over the past 20 years. According to scientists from NASA and the UK Meteorological Office, computer models strongly suggest that the only plausible explanation is a build-up of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

Climate Change and Mountain Glaciers As the climate has changed over the last century, the world's land ice cover has responded. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in mountain glaciers.

Climate Change and the Boreal Forests The northern boreal forests comprise almost one third of the Earth's forest systems, covering 1.5 billion hectares. Along with the temperate forest of the mid-latitudes, and tropical forest near the equator, it is one of the three great forest ecosystems of the world, supporting a rich diversity of wildlife, endangered species, and extremely valuable timber. Unfortunately, over half of the existing boreal forest may fall into irreversible decline due to the effects of climate change.

Climate Change and Arctic Wildlife The dramatic changes observed in the Arctic ice pack over the last few decades are associated with temperature and other climate changes already endangering Arctic wildlife, especially those found at the extreme north or south of their ranges. This fact sheet looks at two case studies of climate damage: polar bears in Hudson Bay, the southernmost extent of the Arctic Ocean, and Peary caribou, who live on some of the most remote northern islands in the Arctic Ocean. The impacts on these animals are a frightening glimpse of much larger changes ahead if greenhouse gas levels continue to rise in the atmosphere.

Answers from the Ice Edge This report, prepared by Greenpeace and Arctic Network, is 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.

Extreme Weather in a Wetter World The loss of much of the Arctic pack ice would have implications far beyond the region. The polar regions have been described as a "refrigerator in the equator to pole transport of energy" - the Earth's natural air conditioning system. A disappearing Arctic ice pack means a much warmer Northern Hemisphere.

Carbon Logic - The Argument Against New Oil The world's ecosystems and human communities are threatened by climate change. The carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, is the single biggest contributor to this human-induced problem.

Solar Power The use of renewable energy such as wind and solar power is essential if we are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late. A vast array of proven renewable technologies are now cheap and ready to be installed, provided those who control the energy industry break their dependency on carbon. This factsheet looks at solar photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight into electricity, and how we can get to the point where they are installed on every rooftop around the globe.

Northstar Ever since the discovery of the massive Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope in 1968, the oil industry has longed to search for and develop offshore. Extreme Arctic conditions and the immensely powerful and shifting Arctic ice pack meant that exploration, and particularly production, would be extremely expensive and risky. Flying in the face of it's `green' rhetoric and pronouncements on the dangers of climate change, BP Amoco is now trying to move offshore, to develop new oil which will inevitably add to the burden of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Northstar Legal Issues in Brief Greenpeace has been campaigning for more than 20 years to stop oil exploration and drilling in the Beaufort Sea, and our particular focus over the past four years has been BP's Northstar project. Greenpeace has reviewed thousands of documents and permits on the project, and has provided oral and written comment at every stage of the permitting process. In addition to visiting North Slope villages, attending hearings, conducting speaking tours, organizing shareholder resolutions and letter writing campaigns to stop the project in the public court of opinion, Greenpeace has also launched a number of challenges in Alaska state and U.S. federal courts to challenge and stop the project.