Greenpeace Arctic 30 Activist Remarks: 'An Extremely Odd Christmas Morning'
The final chapter in the legal ordeal of the Arctic 30 began as the group was asked to attend a meeting at Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee, where the criminal case against them is being dropped en masse. According to Greenpeace they will then have one more hurdle – securing exit visas in their passports – before the non-Russians are free to leave the country and be reunited with their families. A meeting with the Federal Migration Service is scheduled for later today. The Arctic 30 are expected to leave Russia in the coming days.
Shell Signals US Arctic Return, Greenpeace Unwelcoming
According to Greenpeace, Shell's CFO Simon Henry said that the company is putting the building blocks in place to drill in Alaskan Arctic as early as next year. "Shell's Arctic bravado is a desperate attempt to reassure its investors, but the facts tell a different story. Brushing off the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars and casually scrapping a drilling platform are not the actions of a company in control of its operations. "In 2012 Shell proved that it is completely unfit to drill in the remote Arctic, a place of unrivaled beauty where any spill would be an environmental disaster.
Russian Coastguard Quell Greenpeace Arctic Protest
Greenpeace say that Russian authorities are holding 30 of their activists on board the protester's vessel 'Arctic Sunrise' after their attempt to board a Gazprom drilling rig in the Pechora Sea. [The detention] comes after officials from the Russian security service FSB, armed with guns and knives, abruptly stormed the ship using a helicopter and ropes. Once on the ship, they rounded up our activists and ordered them into the mess. It was a swift and aggressive follow-up to the…
"Safe Drilling in the Far North is a Fantasy": Greenpeace
“Even a cursory glance at Shell’s oil spill response plans shows that the company could not deal with an accident in these remote and challenging waters, and we’re disappointed that the court ruled in Shell’s favour. Despite admitting that a spill in the frozen north is inevitable, Shell operated with a response plan that relied on untested technology and equipment totally incapable of working effectively in some of the harshest conditions on Earth. The company’s claim that it could handle a worst-case spill in the Chukchi Sea is absurd. “Safe drilling in the far north is a fantasy.
