Our poles remain the only two parts of our planet unexploited by man, but the growing interest in oil and rich fishing grounds in the Arctic is leading to a free for all as nearby powerful nations scramble to declare the territory as theirs. America, Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark all have direct access to the Arctic Ocean and they all want a slice of the pie. As industrial fishing companies start to trawl the arctic waters to take advantage of its rich fishing grounds and with the new discovery of oil (three years worth) are we heading for an Arctic conflict? The US has spoken of an “increased military threat in the Arctic” but should we be fighting to save the Arctic from exploitation before it even reaches this stage?
Thirty years ago Greenpeace launched their campaign to protect the Antarctic and succeeded, today they are intervening to save the Arctic. Their new campaign, aptly named ‘Save the Arctic’ is campaigning for a global sanctuary and a ban on oil drilling and industrial fishing in the area.
Greenpeace has already drawn publicity to the issue – in 2012 six environmentalists climbed the Gazprom oil rig (Russian owned) and protested with a banner written in Russian stating “save the Arctic!”. More recently six female activists attempted to climb London’s Shard before being arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-po_gjYYeA
As part of the Greenpeace campaign they are collecting signatures through their website (www.savethearctic.org). Their aim is to get 5,000,000 signatures to, currently on 3,680,868 they will be using the signatures as ammunition to push towards a resolution at this years UN General Assembly. This could lead to an agreement being made to create a sanctuary in the High Arctic and a ban on offshore oil drilling and unsustainable industrial fishing in the region.
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