Yesterday in Amsterdam, I was served with an urgent notice from Shell, one of the world's wealthiest oil companies, who in the past weeks we have been vigorously and prominently campaigning against in our Save The Arctic drive. The notice was a stern message from Shell lawyers, who are very worried that our actions around the world this week "have posed a real risk to Shell retailers... and the general public". The letter concludes with a warning about commencing "proceedings" against us at 'any' time in the future.
I don't know about you, but to me there is an incredible irony in being accused of posing a risk to the public that seems to have escaped Shell and its lawyers. After all, Shell is a company that itself, in the last week, completely lost control of a massive drillship in Alaska, which it let drift towards shore before apparently grounding on the beach. In Washington state too, engineers have been clamouring to finish Shell's oil spill response barge, a rusty old thing that has been beset by all manner of serious technical problems, just so the company can forge ahead with its plans to drill the Arctic. This slipshod approach can hardly be held up as the work of a bastion of public safety.
After the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, 'spill response' has become something of a buzz term, as well it needs to be. Shell is a company that is responsible for the largest spill in the UK's recent history in the North Sea, and is currently facing a $5 billion fine for leaking 40,000 barrels of crude into Nigerian waters last December. Now let's talk about public and environmental safety.
The Noble Discoverer, a ship never so undeserving of the designation -- there is nothing 'noble' about its activities and that of its company and crew -- dates back to 1966 and has slipped anchor before, in New Zealand last year. Talk about being fit for purpose.
And all that's before Shell even starts drilling in the Arctic, one of the most fragile environments on the planet. This region has remained largely untouched by industrial development, but now one of the world's most reckless companies wants to drill as many wells as it can before sea ice -- and months-long darkness -- closes off the region for the winter. Their spill response plan includes mention of oil-sniffing dogs, and hand-drawn pictures that would make a seven-year-old blush. The Arctic region is also home to Indigenous peoples who rely on a healthy ocean to survive, as do certain species of arctic fox, narwhal and the polar bear. Shell is skating on very thin ice.
Meanwhile, across the world Greenpeace activists have been peacefully protesting Shell's arctic plans in petrol stations, offices and online. From London to Houston, Budapest to The Hague, hundreds of passionate people have sought to "#TellShell" to stay out of this pristine environment in an entirely safe, careful way. Just yesterday, we tipped 1 million signups in our global petition to Save The Arctic. The result came much quicker than expected, a sign that increasing numbers of people are mobilizing against planetary destruction.
So what could really be the motivation behind the flurry of Shell's lawyers? Perhaps we're too uncomfortably exposing the truth of Shell's competency to drill the Arctic. Perhaps 1 million names of support and the global media coverage of our activities is too much light to bear. Or maybe, just maybe, these are the desperate actions of a company which is a slowly sinking ship, if you will, one whose current business strategy is limited, as more and more people mutiny, realizing that we can no longer carry on with business as usual when it comes to plundering the planet.
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Paul McCartney: Come Together, to Save the Arctic
It is really too bad that governments have not recognized the importance of keeping the Arctic pristine. Relying on discussions in the Arctic Council for concerted action is not good enough if individual countries are going to allow willy-nilly resource extraction up there and maritime traffic and overfishing are not controlled. An Arctic Nature Reserve needs to be created to encompass much of the Arctic Ocean which falls outside currently established EEZs. See the e-thriller "Arctic Meltdown" for how this could work and what could happen if a stronger legal regime than the current one is not put in place to protect the Arctic environment.
They're quite a lot like the tobacco executives who solemnly swore that cigarettes don't cause cancer. They were nevertheless made to change their wicked ways (to some extent), and so too will Shell. Bravo on your fantastic efforts to preserve the most sensitive and climate-determining section of the earth.