Protesters fight Arctic drill plan

11:30am Tuesday 24th July 2012 in News

Greenpeace campaigners outside the Shell garage at Barrack Road in Christchurch protest against the company’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic Greenpeace campaigners outside the Shell garage at Barrack Road in Christchurch protest against the company’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic

GREENPEACE volunteers staged a peaceful protest outside a Christchurch petrol station at the weekend as part of a worldwide campaign.

Around 12 campaigners congregated near the Shell petrol station on Barrack Road on Saturday afternoon to encourage motorists to support their movement to stop Shell drilling for oil in the Arctic this summer.

The group, including one dressed as a polar bear, held banners and leaflets and urged passing motorists to beep their horns if they supported the Greenpeace global week of action, which saw similar protests taking place in Mexico, Argentina, France, Sweden, Finland and Edinburgh.

Alasdair Keddie, a Greenpeace volunteer from Bournemouth, said: “So far it’s been brilliant, we have had a really good turnout as well.

“It’s been a brilliant response from the public. The local police came down to make sure we weren’t causing any issues with people getting in and out of the station.

“We’re doing it by the book. This is not about this particular filling station but about the company, Shell.

“The main objective is to raise awareness about the drilling in the Arctic.

“The Arctic is a fragile and beautiful place. An oil spill there would be catastrophic. It is one of the last pristine environments on earth.”

A Shell spokesperson said: “Shell recognises that certain organisations are opposed to our exploration programme offshore Alaska, and we respect the right of individuals and organisations to engage in a free and frank exchange of views about our operations.

“Recognising the right of individuals to express their point of view, we only ask that they do so with their safety and the safety of others, including the general public and Shell personnel in mind.”

Comments(11)

Derf says...
12:02pm Tue 24 Jul 12

I wonder how all these 'do gooders' got to the petrol station in the first place?

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penhale says...
12:18pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Derf wrote:
I wonder how all these 'do gooders' got to the petrol station in the first place?
Don't think they all walked there or used horses, probably used motor vehicles, really flies in the face of everything they protest about.
I wonder how much carbon they produced traveling to this protest.

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muscliffman says...
1:18pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Derf wrote:
I wonder how all these 'do gooders' got to the petrol station in the first place?
Quite. They are also wearing man-made clothes (fortunately) and shoes, using ink printed paper placards on wooden poles etc.
Tree hugging green hypocrocy as usual, I bet they are even breathing out CO2 - shocking!

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Derf says...
1:20pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Still, with all the global warming Greenpeace bleat on about, there won't be any poles or Polar bears soon, so shell can have carte blanche to drill there (not that oil companies haven't been drilling in the artic circle in Canada and Alaska for donkey's years anyway - or that it's ever been a priority for greenpeace until now)

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Cmdr Kryll says...
1:43pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Derf wrote:
Still, with all the global warming Greenpeace bleat on about, there won't be any poles or Polar bears soon, so shell can have carte blanche to drill there (not that oil companies haven't been drilling in the artic circle in Canada and Alaska for donkey's years anyway - or that it's ever been a priority for greenpeace until now)
No Poles? Sounds like the Forth Reich!

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Adrian XX says...
1:49pm Tue 24 Jul 12

There's no hypocrisy in protesting against drilling for oil in a particular part of the world, since there are oil reserves elsewhere which, for the time being, can be used. I support their protest but I wouldn't support a protest against cars (though I think it is a good thing that there are now plenty of high-fuel-economy cars and hybrids coming onto the market).

@derf - global warming is generally accepted and is not in any way controversial. What is somewhat in dispute is whether it is anthropogenic.

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Derf says...
2:13pm Tue 24 Jul 12

global warming is taken as read not withstanding any amount of ape-like species on the planet.

My question is why are Greenpeace singling out shell and why now?
As I mentioned, many oil and exploration companies have been drilling for oil in the artic circle for the last 40 years. This is nothing new.

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snake hips says...
8:17pm Tue 24 Jul 12

bloody tree huggers.. bet they were the first to moan at the soaring petrol prices earlier in the year.

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Mangiafuoco says...
9:57pm Tue 24 Jul 12

The problem, as demonstrated by the vast majority of comments on here, is that sadly people are too ignorant and commercially brainwashed to actually give a **** about the planet we live in. Unfortunately pollution, global warming (whether it is man made or not), the depletion of the world resources and the gradual destruction of our beautiful planet is of no concern to the majority of human kind. We have all been lead to believe that consumerism and unfettered consumption is the road to true happiness and the majority of us have fallen for it. Oil is the drug and we are prepared to kill for it, as demonstrated in Iraq and other recent conflicts. As long as we can fill our cars up with cheap fuel in order to drive to Tesco on a Sunday to buy junk we don't really need, we are happy with our short, pointless, futile existence. And, by the way, pre-empting some of the crass comments on here, I ain't no "tree hugger".

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pitsha says...
10:22pm Tue 24 Jul 12

I think some of you have completely misunderstood the fundamental concept of this campaign, which is to raise awareness about the oil industry and what it’s doing to our planet. Personally, I can’t see any hypocrisy in trying to change people’s point of view. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how they got to the protest, what clothes they wear and what banners they use. We’re all addicted to oil, we’re all in this together and we’re all victims of the fossil fuel frenzy that has been governing our lives for years. Sadly, we’ve reached the point where there are more negative outcomes rather than benefits of oil extraction. This protest is about change and showing people that there are alternatives to fossil fuels like renewable energy. We’ve got the means, the technology right at our doorstep but current market systems love to hold back progress, especially when there’s money to be made from the scarcity of oil. This is the main message that Greenpeace want to spread. It’s not about hugging trees, I think these people are doing a brilliant job in making people think, making people realise the resource intensive model of prosperity is beyond the biophysical capacity of the planet, the ONLY planet we have. Whether we like it or not, our life is possible only with the ecosphere and if we don’t make any changes we will jeopardise our own survival. Instead of sitting, doing nothing pointing fingers and creating artificial boundaries we should actually look up to people like them, who are actually doing something good not just for themselves, but for all of us and the future inhabitants of this planet.

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candleflame says...
7:43am Wed 25 Jul 12

Nice to see people out on the streets protesting about something they care about, and standing up to the big corportaions.

Ignore the nay'sayers above, they're probably welded to their sofas as the muttering majority. Our society needs to change, and the people that count are the people who stand up to do something about the problems of the day.

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