Activists occupy oil rig in fight to prevent Arctic drilling

[kpete]

Source: Guardian UK

Activists occupy oil rig in fight to prevent Arctic drilling
Environmental groups fear oil industry is not prepared for potentially catastrophic impact of oil spills in the Arctic


The fight to stop the global oil industry exploring the pristine deep waters of the Arctic has been dubbed the new cold war, and early on Friday it escalated as environmental activists from 12 countries occupied the world's second largest rig on its way from Turkey to Greenland to drill among the icebergs.

The protesters found the 52,000-tonne semi-submersible platform Leiv Eiriksson at around midnight, steaming due west at a stately six knots in the sea of Marmara, heading for the Dardanelle straits and the open Mediterranean. It took four more hours for Greenpeace to bring in its inflatables and a further 50 minutes in the choppy moonlit sea to intercept it.

Even from three miles away, the Chinese-built mobile rig, which specialises in drilling in extreme environments, looks huge. From 100ft away in the pale dawn light it is a 15-storey industrial castle, bristling with cranes, derricks, gangways, chains, spars, girders, pipes, helipads and radar. Just 10 years old, it is already rusting and its paintwork is streaked from years of drilling in harsh west African, north Atlantic and Asian waters

The Greenpeace boats approached the vessel cautiously in the three foot swell, like fleas to the backside of an elephant. At exactly 5.31am, the 11 climbers began to leap on to its hull and headed for a ladder. The plan was to stop the vessel in its tracks not by taking over the bridge, but by radioing the captain and asking politely. Fat chance.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/22/activists-occupy-arctic-oil-rig

[flamingdem]

1. Greenpeace rocks nt

[grahamhgreen]

2. Time to get off the oil addiction.

[Turborama]

3. Link To Greenpeace's Live Blog From The Rig...

Here: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/live-weve-scaled-and-occupied-cairns-arctic-rig-20110422

[nashville_brook]

5. thank you!

[defendandprotect]

4. Capitalism is a unique form of insanity -- and it is suicidal -- !!