Northstar: occupation
News Update: 09.00 BST, Tuesday, 8th August 2000.
Greenpeace activists have began their second day of occupation of a barge working for BP in the Arctic Ocean. The 130-metre barge, carrying a control centre and accommodation block was en-route to BP�s controversial Arctic oil installation - Northstar, when the activists boarded it on Monday just after midnight Alaskan time. If oil drilling from BP's Northstar project is allowed to go ahead, it will fuel the dangerous problem of global warming, which is already causing severe meltdown in the Arctic.
Five Greenpeace activists, three from the UK and two from the US have so far prevented the barge from reaching the Northstar construction site in Alaska�s Prudhoe Bay. The barge has turned around and is currently anchored off the Point of Barrow in the Beaufort Sea.
Greenpeace has set up a campaign office inside BP�s Northstar office module on the barge and have sent out an email from it to BP employees explaining the organisation�s peaceful direct action against Northstar. The activists have also erected a polar survival shelter on the roof of the module.
Stephanie Tunmore, one of UK activists on board the barge said �We are going to stay here in BP�s control module as long as we can, campaigning from the Northstar nerve centre to get BP to cancel the project and stop speeding up the meltdown of the Arctic.�
The Arctic is on the front-line of global warming. The western Arctic is already warming three to five times faster than the global average. An area of Arctic ice pack the size of Texas has disappeared in the past 20 years. Despite BP's frequent claims to be concerned about climate change it has recently announced a 40% increase in oil and gas investment and plans to spend over 50 times more on oil exploration and production than on clean, renewable energy. BP recently 0 announced a new logo design, ironically of a sunburst, at a cost of $100 million for this year, more than its total spend on renewables last year.
