DOWN TO ZERO BOAT TOUR
Regular Updates from the Crew aboard the Ship, MV Greenpeace.

AUGUST 16 - FRAMBREEN GLACIER

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• When making a reconnaissance of a bird cliff yesterday on one of the islands that make up the Norske-oeyane we were fortunate enough to site a polar bear and two cubs. This made a welcome break from looking for bird droppings!

  MIDNIGHT SUN ACTION:
  

  Today, we left the ship early in the morning. Together with three other climbers from Germany, Australia and the Netherlands we intend to put up a large banner to protest against the poisoning of the Arctic by the Western industry. The size of the banner, 35mtrs by 25 mtrs, makes it somewhat harder to find a good spot. We carry about 90 kilo's of equipment up the glacier. Nice hard work after a week on the ship.

  It takes a couple of hours before we reach the final spot for the banner hanging. Nobody complains about the heavy work because this place is simply too beautiful and wild to complain about anything. Finally, the banner hangs of a vertical icecliff that ends into the fjord. The MV Greenpeace is in the background. After a couple of hours we leave, making sure we leave nothing behind, except our footprints. From a account by a Greenpeace Climber and Activist.
  
  In the foreground to the glacier 13 barrels painted with chemical company names were placed with Greenpeace activists next to them. They are all large multi-national corporations that produce POPs or other hazardous substances.

  The names on the barrels are: Akzo Nobel, Elf Atochem, ICI, Solvay, DuPont, Rhone Poulenc, Ciba, Dow, Enichem, Shell, Bayer, Hoechst and BASF.

  With this action Greenpeace wants to name some of the big chemical companies that have or still are involved in the production of POPs that are now being found to pollute the Arctic.