September 2010

"Well, that was dramatic" - watching our activists from the ship

Posted by jamess — 2 September 2010 at 11:10am - Comments

Ben writes about this morning's events from the Esperanza...

Well, that was dramatic. Yesterday afternoon, the seas started churning and our huge banner on the oil rig was twisting and flapping as a gale blew up. I spoke to the four activists under rig and they assured me they were fine. They had self-heating meals and water and were still doing interviews, telling the world about Cairn Energy’s plans to spark an Arctic oil rush.

I kept eyeing the scene through the porthole in my cabin with concern. The swell was heaving and the lips of the waves were breaking white across the stretch of sea separating the Esperanza from the rig. The weather forecast on the screen on the bridge looked ominous – lots of grim symbols over the coast west of Greenland – while a quick duck outside had my eyes watering with the cold.

New deep sea drilling is not only irrational, our lawyers say it's illegal too

Posted by jamess — 2 September 2010 at 9:34am - Comments

BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

Today our lawyers sent a letter to the UK government threatening legal action over their decision to continue giving licenses for deep sea oil drilling even before we know for certain the causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Our oil rig occupation has ended

Posted by lisavickers — 2 September 2010 at 7:44am - Comments

Picture of Sim yesterday morning on the rig

It’s five in the morning Greenland time and the last few hours have been quite insane. Last night, with the Espy pitching and rocking, and cups flying all over the place, we knew we had to get Timo, Meteusz, Sim and Jens off the rig. The worst of the Arctic weather was closing in, and their tiny tents were not going to be enough to keep them safe.

Our friends had to climb up onto the rig. Due to the strong winds it took them a bit more than four hours to get up there, and when they did they were met by police and taken peacefully into custody.

Video: update direct from the oil rig

Posted by jamess — 1 September 2010 at 5:46pm - Comments

Watch Sim talk about his "relatively comfortable" night dangling off the underside of Cairn's Stena Don rig. Our four climbers are still on Cairn's rig, stopping the company from continuing its dangerous drilling in Arctic waters.

Read more at: www.GoBeyondOil.org

Hanging in there - we're still on the Arctic oil rig

Posted by jamess — 1 September 2010 at 10:04am - Comments

One of the Greenpeace climbers hanging from the oil rig Stena Don in the Arctic

Our four climbers have spent the night in sub-zero temperatures, hanging off the bottom of Cairn's Arctic oil rig - the Stena Don. While we're attached to the rig, Cairn Energy can't continue their reckless drilling.

For live updates visit www.GoBeyondOil.org

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