BP’s Gulf of Mexico Disaster: Two Years Later, Where Is The Response?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Phil Radford

Co-Authored by Phil Radford, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA and Aaron Viles, Deputy Director of Gulf Restoration Network

Phil Radford walks through oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead along the break water in Southpass where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana. 05/20/2010

The BP disaster turns two this week. Two years since the nation was reminded that offshore drilling is dirty, dangerous, and deadly. Two years since the slow-motion disaster began changing our region, our communities, our ecosystem.

As we look back and assess where we are today, a troubling picture is emerging from the Gulf. Continue reading →

Arctic drilling plan shakier than Keith Richards after a bender, says London insurance firm

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Travis Nichols

Yesterday, an oil slick appeared between two of Shell’s rigs off the Louisiana coast, and while the international oil giant sent out a press release calling the blob an “orphan sheen,” something that it was in no way responsible for, you’ll forgive us for being more than a bit skeptical.

Why?

Because by now everyone knows there’s no such thing as safe oil drilling, especially in fragile environments like the Gulf.

If Shell can’t keep its rigs in check there (or in Nigeria), then what chance do they have in the Arctic, one of the remotest, harshest environments in the world? Not much of a chance, it turns out.

In a bit of fortuitous timing, the venerable insurance firm, Lloyd’s of London, declared yesterday that Shell’s plan to drill for Arctic oil this summer is a “unique and hard-to-manage risk” to the fragile ecosystem.

The environmental consequences of disasters in the Arctic have the potential to be worse than in other regions. The resilience of the Arctic’s ecosystems in terms of withstanding risk events is weak, and political sensitivity to a disaster is high. As a result, companies operating in the Arctic face significant reputational risk.

Lloyd’s is famous for assessing singular risks, and their warning about Shell’s plans for the Arctic is a wake-up call for anyone who believes the oil company’s spin that there is such a thing as clean oil extraction.

There isn’t. How can we tell?

With Lloyd’s track record for insuring celebrity body parts, their declaration tells us that a Shell-caused disaster in the Arctic is now MORE likely than:

Head & Shoulders rep Troy Polamalu getting hazed (hair insured for 1 million)

Bruce Springsteen taking up menthols (voice is insured for 6 million)

British food critic Egon Ronay burning his tongue (taste buds insured for 400k)

Heidi Klum taking a wrong turn on the ski slopes (legs insured for 2.2 million)

Keith Richards not dying (hands insured for 1.6 million)

Troubling.

Shell is going into the Arctic this summer, and it’s just a matter of time before we see reports of another “orphan sheen” appearing, this one in the polar bear’s backyard.

The international oil giant knows it’s risking one of the last pristine places on earth in order to power global warming (What, you thought it sucking up a global commodity would affect your gas prices? Hardly), which is why it’s trying to do such risky work under cover of darkness. The last thing they want is you to know what they’re up to. Which is why Greenpeace is dedicated to taking the company on.

After Greenpeace New Zealand activists occupied one of Shell’s ships in New Zealand in February (with Lucy Lawless leading the charge), the company deployed its team of slick lawyers to keep us from further exposing their work.

But despite Shell’s attempts to suppress opposition, our campaign continues. And we need your help!

Tell Shell that an environmental disaster in the Arctic isn’t a risk worth taking.

Shell Attempts to Silence Dissent Over Arctic Drilling

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Chris Eaton

Do you disagree with Shell Oil’s plan to drill in the Arctic? Well, Shell is trying to silence you.

This week, the Shell Oil Company responded to Greenpeace New Zealand activists who boarded its drillship by filing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against Greenpeace USA. Shell’s proposed order would have been one of the broadest and most restrictive in US legal history.

If granted, the restraining order could have been applied to any of the 500,000 online activists associated with Greenpeace USA who chose to take action with the organization at Shell’s gas stations, regional offices or its other venues around the country.

But, on March 1 a federal judge in Alaska rejected the bulk of the request as too broad. Instead, the judge issued a limited order against Greenpeace USA to keep us from approaching either of the drilling vessels that will be used for offshore exploratory drilling north of Alaska. Continue reading →

Our second night on the drillship

Posted on February 25, 2012 by admin

by Viv, a Greenpeace Activist on board Shell’s Arctic bound drill ship now in New Zealand.

We’re now reaching the end of our second day occupying the drill tower of Shell’s drillship the Noble Discoverer. There’s pretty spectacular 360 degree views from up here – we can see seals lolling on the beaches to the south and waves crashing against little islands to the west.

When we look straight down things ain’t quite so pretty. On my way up the drill tower yesterday morning i found myself thinking that this is by far the ugliest structure I’ve ever climbed, and the words ‘rust bucket’ have been on all of our lips more than once. It’s frightening to think they want to take this old thing into the pristine Arctic – let alone what they what to do with it when they get there. Continue reading →

Lucy Lawless joins Greenpeace action against Arctic oil drilling

Posted on February 23, 2012 by admin

by Nick Young, Greenpeace New Zealand.

Right now Greenpeace activists are stopping a Shell drill ship from leaving the Port of Taranaki in New Zealand for the Arctic.

Climbers – including actress Lucy Lawless -have scaled the rig’s drill derrick and set up camp, equipped with enough gear to last for days Continue reading →

Top 10 reasons why Arctic oil drilling is a really bad stupid idea

Posted on February 23, 2012 by admin

by Ben Stewart, Greenpeace International

1.It’s extremely dangerous. The Arctic environment is one of the harshest in the world, and everything you do there is more complicated than anywhere else.

2. Our climate can’t afford it. As the impacts of climate change become more visible and the danger becomes greater, drilling for and burning more fossil fuels is pretty much the last thing we should be doing, especially in somewhere as fragile and untouched as the Arctic. Continue reading →

President Obama Risks the Arctic and His Voter Base

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Phil Radford

oiled brown pelican

Earlier today, President Obama’s staff held a hearing on their proposed 5 year oil leasing plan. A plan that would open up drilling in the Arctic. I was there with Cindy Shogan of Alaska Wilderness League, rallying people to urge the President to stop risking the Arctic and the support of young environmental voters.

When the BP Deepwater disaster happened, I saw firsthand the destruction that oil drilling causes on the environment.

Continue reading →

A Drill too Far

Posted on May 17, 2010 by greenpeace_guest_blogger

The following update is from Paul Horsman, a marine biologist with degrees from Newcastle University and Portsmouth Polytechnic in the UK, and an international campaigner with over 25 years experience at the forefront of campaigning on environmental and peace issues in many countries across the globe – 20 of these years with Greenpeace.

Here in the southern U.S. the land doesn’t just “meet” the sea so much as the land and sea “shake hands” with fingers of land and sea curving around each other creating a coastline of inlets and bayous hundreds of miles long. It’s a unique flat land- and waterscape with willows, reeds, water lilies, and massively abundant bird and marine life. It’s a warm, sultry, slow and considered kinda place.

Access is by water, which is the determining element here. Carey (a local skipper) showed me where he’d been born and raised right in the middle of the bayou. As a kid he was picked up by the school-boat. His mother-in-law at 85 years is still getting around in her small aluminum boat. He took us out in his home-built boat. The water not only forges the environment and its wildlife, it molds the people; determines their work and lives.

The tension and fear is palpable as the tragedy unfolds just 50 miles offshore and a mile deep.

Each day thousands of gallons of oil are hemorrhaging from the ocean floor. All of us have been scanning the weather forecasts and listening to updates. Waiting for the oil to reach the shore, wondering what the hell is going on out there, and what this will all mean for wildlife, livelihoods and communities. Long after the media have gone, it is these that will be left to continue as best they can.

A woman at a public meeting on Thursday regaled a panel of EPA, coastguard and BP people asking them what about the future for her, her children and grand-children. The BP representative had slipped out of the door; although he was from New Orleans, he was clearly having some trouble trying to defend the indefensible.

So what is going on out there? BP has been injecting thousands of gallons of chemical dispersants into the oil underwater. These chemicals are poisonous and serve to simply break up the oil so that some sinks and spreads further but thinner and less obvious. Hundreds of miles of booms have been laid in attempts to stop the impending black tide; straw bales and absorbent materials have been laid along high tide marks; military trucks and helicopters deploy people and equipment; captains look out over their boats now moored in harbor.

With deep sea drilling, BP has been pushing the technology to its limits. This accident shows that they have pushed it beyond its limits. No one knows how to stop this spill. No one knows what the impacts are going to be of thousands of tons of crude oil spreading from the sea floor, injected with thousands of gallons of dispersant chemicals. Oil is toxic, dispersants are toxic and the combination is certainly going to have major impacts.

This isn’t the only tragedy. Last October I was in Northern Canada where Greenpeace is campaigning against the tar sands – a frontier of oil development that is creating a big black mess. At each end of North America there is a huge black mess caused by the oil industry destroying the environment in their desperate grab for the remaining oil in the frontiers.

In the midst of these disasters the industry wants to move further into the fragile Arctic. Such short-sighted folly.

It has to stop. Although we cannot stop using oil tomorrow, we know we have to move away from using oil and all fossil fuels as quickly as possible. This shift begins by stopping the oil industry from going any further. As the oil continues to hemorrhage from the ocean floor here in the Gulf of Mexico a clear message should be sent to the government and the industry: Stop oil exploration and shift towards clean sustainable energy sources which are the future. The oil industry is the past.

Take action now.

BP oil spill — a timeline of disaster

Posted on May 7, 2010 by michellefrey

On April 20, 2010, a BP offshore oil rig exploded, killing workers on the rig and spilling tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well, located 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, is now leaking between 5,000 – 60,000 barrels (210, 000 – 2,520,000 gallons) of crude oil into Gulf Coast waters each day, with devastating consequences for Gulf Coast communities and the fragile wetlands, bayous, and coastal waters on which they depend.

We’ve put together a timeline dating back to July 2007 when the Department of Interior released a report finding that there is a history of accidents, fires and even deaths at offshore oil drilling projects.

It’s time for history to stop repeating itself. Let’s put an end to this sort of diaster so that our future will be safer. Take action and tell Congress that the time for action is now. Congress must put a ban on new offshore drilling that prevents this threat from spreading to other areas of the country.

–Michelle

Greenpeace activists say “Choose a clean energy future now!”

Posted on May 5, 2010 by michellefrey

The Deepwater Horizon accident continues to spill millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Echoing the sentiment of concernced people all across America, Greenpeace activists delivered a strong message to Congress, “Choose a clean energy future now.”

The disaster in the Gulf is a tragic reminder of the impacts of America’s addiction to dirty and dangerous sources of energy like oil, and it must serve as a wake up call to Congress of the urgent need to immediately stop plans for any new offshore oil drilling.

The oil industry’s stranglehold on our energy policy has protected oil company profits while sacrificing our health, local economies, and our environment. It’s past time for Congress to shut out the polluter lobbyists and urgently move us toward clean, renewable energy.

How much oil is flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from this disastrous oil spill? Our new counter will keep tabs as the oil continues to flow…

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