Oil

Greenpeace activist Victor, hanging off Chevron's Stena Carron rig

A few moments ago, our activists started taking action against a massive oil platform, stopping it from drilling a deep water well off the Shetland Islands.

Using speedboats to reach the huge 228m long drill ship, they climbed up the giant rungs of the anchor chain, and are now preventing the ship from moving to its drill site.

It all started two days ago, when a handful of activists slipped off the Esperanza - which we knew would be monitored - and boarded a ferry in Aberdeen bound for Lerwick in the Shetland Islands.

Then this morning, at a sign that the drill ship was about to move, they started the action.

Victor, one of the climbers, describes what it's like on the Stena Carron's anchor chain

The ship is operated by oil giant Chevron, and was due to sail for a site 200km north of the Shetland Islands and drill a well in 500 metres of water.

More than 10,000 of us have sent an email to Chris Huhne - the Energy Secretary - calling for a moratorium on deepwater drilling in UK waters.  On top of that, last month we sent a letter to the government threatening legal action in an effort to stop the granting of new permits for deep water drilling.

But it's not enough. Deepwater drilling is continuing unabated.

We saw what happened in the Gulf of Mexico only a few months ago. The world's biggest oil spill - a direct consequence of reckless deepwater drilling. It's time we go beyond oil and stop gambling with our environment and the climate.

Follow the latest at GoBeyondOil.org and find out how you too can take action.

The first Greenpeace ship - the Phyllis Cormack - in 1971 © Greenpeace / Robert Keziere

Today is the 39th birthday of Greenpeace and we have just arrived in Aberdeen on the Esperanza. Back in 1971 on September 15th, the first Greenpeace ship set sail to protest against a US nuclear test zone and peacefully prevent the destruction of Amchitka, a pristine island ecosystem off the coast of Alaska. They didn't make it all the way to Amchitka but what followed was a wave of public support that ultimately shut down the US nuclear testing program, won Amchitka designation as a wildlife sanctuary and gave birth to the Greenpeace movement.

Serendipitously, we have just returned to the UK on Greenpeace's birthday from a mission to the Arctic where we peacefully stopped offshore drilling for 40 hours to minimise the chances of an oil strike before drilling stops for the winter. But while Cairn Energy continues dangerous drilling in the Arctic, we're hoping that together with our supporters we've helped to catalyse the movement to go beyond oil. 

We are still waiting for our climbers to be released but hoping they will be back on board the Esperanza soon. They are sorely missed - especially Timo's lovely guitar playing in the evenings. Anais is talking about preparing a "Welcome Back!" banner for them and every time the captain or our campaign leader walks past we keep asking "any news?". The answer is still no. Nobody knows exactly when they will be out and perhaps they wont be allowed back to the ship at all.