Tag: Greenpeace

More than 225 tons of hazardous chemicals into the ocean Yet another Cairn well off Greenland - the sixth so far - has come up dry. The Delta-1 well will be plugged and abandoned and Cairn now has to pin its hopes for this year's drilling season on two remaining wells.Cairn's share prices tumbled, again; the company is now worth 37 per cent less than it was six months ago. Not only is it losing value fast, Cairn is also spending millions - around US$600m - in its failing quest to find oil off Greenland.Unfortunately, money isn't the only thing Cairn is flushing away.The company has also pumped more than 225 tons of hazardous chemicals into the ocean around Greenland this year - that's more red-listed chemicals than the entire oil operations of Norway and Denmark combined.These chemicals are described by the OSPAR convention as giving "reason for suspicion because of several polluting effects on the environment".The environment, in this case, is one of the most pristine, fragile and vulnerable in the world - home to wildlife that includes almost all of the world's Narwhal population as well as blue whales, sea bird colonies and polar bears.Cairn is risking all ...

Greenpeace activists in Brazil dress up as whales to protest Greenpeace activists in Brazil dress up as whales to protest against the French oil company, Perenco. The demonstrators are calling on Perenco to support a moratorium on drilling near the South Atlantic's largest coral reef.Greenpeace activists held a protest outside the Brazilian unit of the French oil company Perenco, in Rio de Janeiro.The Abrolhos Bank reef in Brazil's northeast has been chosen by nearly ten thousand whales as a breeding ground.Greenpeace says that the drilling units in the region will weigh down on the breeding of these humpback whales, a species that were driven close to extinction and are now making a comeback. It is also the breeding season for them right now.The demonstrators dressed as whales and sprayed black paint on the costumes to illustrate the whales' situation, calling for an end to the oil drilling.Currently, Perenco and nine other oil companies such as Petrobas, Shell, and Repsol, are licensed to explore for oil in the Abrolhos region.Greenpeace has sent a letter with 12 thousand signatures to all oil firms inthe Abrolhos region, demanding that they back a moratorium on the oil drilling.The activists said Perenco is closest to ...

Greenpeace is demanding an end to the overfishing Activists from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza called for Pacific Ocean marine reserves to help protect tuna stocks by protesting alongside and aboard a Taiwanese tuna boat fishing in international waters between French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.A crew of five activists aboard a Greenpeace inflatable held up banners in Taiwanese and English which read "Marine Reserves Now" in front of the longliner Yu Long No.10. They were protesting the ship's destructive fishing method and urged the vessel to stop fishing in the areas also known as the Pacific Commons which are vulnerable to pirate fishing and in urgent need of protection. The activists were invited on board by the ship's captain who also held the "Marine Reserves Now" banner for photos."Greenpeace is demanding an end to the overfishing that's driving Pacific tuna stocks into decline. Governments and companies must agree to make tuna fisheries sustainable or risk losing this valuable fish forever, putting the food security and economic prosperity of the Pacific region in peril," said Greenpeace expedition leader Karli Thomas aboard the Esperanza.Longline tuna vessels are notorious for their bycatch of endangered species as well as pirate fishing and the laundering ...

Rainbow Warrior II will be refitted as a hospital ship Germanischer Lloyd (GL) is supporting "Rainbow Warrior II" to perform its philanthropic mission in Bangladesh after the vessel was transferred as a medical ship from the Greenpeace International to a Bangladesh-based NGO Friendship. GL has recently signed an agreement with Friendship to offer free-of-charge classification services for a period of five years.After servicing Greenpeace for 22 years, "Rainbow Warrior II" will be refitted as a hospital ship renamed Rongdhonu, Bengali for Rainbow, and assigned to deliver primary and secondary medical assistance to communities along the coast of Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal that are hardly accessible to basic health care facilities. The vessel will also serve as an emergency medical ship to relieve some areas in the region from the effects of climate change."We're proud of our involvement in this unique project to help thousands of Bangladeshi citizens most in need of medical services," said Mr. Lukasz Luwanski, Area Manager South Asia / Oceania, GL. "This is also part of our commitment to the South Asian country as a good corporate citizen. While assisting with the development of its shipbuilding industry, GL would also contribute to improving the welfare ...

The vessel also sailed against over fishing, whaling, global warming and other environmental crimes Greenpeace's famous protest ship, the Rainbow Warrior II, arrived in Bangladesh on Monday, ready to be turned into a floating hospital.Bangladeshi charity Friendship, which was given the ship by the environmental campaign group this month, said it will take six months to convert the 55-metre long vessel - renamed Rongdhonu, meaning Rainbow - into a hospital. "We are very happy to receive this ship as we will now be able to help the impoverished communities in Bangladesh's coastal areas," Friendship's director Runa Khan said at a welcome ceremony at the port in Chittagong."There are many remote, impoverished communities in our costal areas which have few medical services - this ship will help us cater to their needs."Greenpeace's original Rainbow Warrior was sunk by French intelligence agents in 1985 in New Zealand in a bid to stop activists from protesting against France's nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean.It was replaced by Rainbow Warrior II, which first sailed for the organisation in 1989.The ship was used by the organisation to confront environmental crimes and nuclear testing, and it also provided disaster relief to victims of the 2004 tsunami ...

Arctic is one of the defining environmental battles of our age Earlier this month, 20 Greenpeace activists were arrested for trying to prevent Scotland's Cairn Energy from its outrageous plan to drill for oil in the Arctic.Sickened by the risks the oil industry is ready to take with our planet, and greatly inspired by the dedication of my colleagues, late last week Greenpeace campaigner Ulvar Arnkvaern and I decided to become prisoners number 21 and 22.For the act of boarding Cairn's oil rig (or hanging off it in a pod for 4 days as was the case for 2 of our activists) some of my colleagues were held for nearly 2 weeks in Nuuk's (Greenland's capital) Institution Prison, before being deported. Their brave actions caused the oil company to delay its dangerous plans by 5 days.In addition to demanding an end to dangerous deep water oil drilling in the pristine Arctic, my colleagues also arrived with the very reasonable request that Cairn make its spill response plan public.A spill response plan is the document that an oil company must draw up explaining how it would clean up a spill. These plans are nearly always made public, but Cairn insists upon ...

The problem is that the Arctic Sea is considered to be a very valuable oil reserve Greenpeace ships, the Arctic Sunrise and the Esperanza, have been searching the North Atlantic for the oil rig, Leiv Eiriksson. The ships finally found the Cairn Energy owned oil rig this week hidden amongst the icebergs. However, in finding the oil rig they were also confronted by commandos from the Danish navy whose mission was to protect the massive 53,000 tonne oil rig.The Leiv Eiriksson, now located 200 miles to the west of Greenland, is considered by many to be one of the world's most controversial oil rigs and the drilling operation is being protected by a Danish warship. Of major concern is that any oil spill in the Arctic Sea would be very difficult, if not impossible, to handle and Greenpeace has just released confidential documents written by the UK government which confirm that the foreign office is concerned an Arctic oil spill clean-up would be extremely challenging.Greenpeace said today that Cairn Energy is hoping to drill down to 1500m, which is the depth of the BP oil well that caused major devastation in the Gulf of Mexico, but that the Leiv Eiriksson ...