Oil

Esso Purfleet: tiger and banner

Update: 02:00
Hot, exhausted and but still growling, the volunteer who spent nearly 15 hours up a 60ft light mast in a tiger costume was finally craned off by the police and arrested at around 8pm. She was one of the last Greenpeace volunteers to be removed from Esso's fuel supply depot. As they were removed, one by one, and led away by the police the volunteers waved to the supporters at the gates and got waves and cheers of support in return.

Drillstar: onboard

At dawn today three Greenpeace volunteers began their descent from the 180ft drillstack. The Greenpeace volunteers have maintained their occupation of the JET drillstar for over 24 hrs, successfully preventing it from going to sea to drill for more killer oil.

One of the three volunteer climbers just down from the rig said, "we spent most of yesterday positioned half way up the drillstack determined to prevent the rig from moving to drill for more oil, but as it started to get cold and dark we made our way further up the drillstack to join the six other climbers who had already made a safe warm base."

St. Kilda's precipitous cliffs, crystal clear water and massive seabird colonies have continued to attract generations of divers, sailors and nature-lovers to its shores. It ranks alongside the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Site.

The islands once again find themselves on the edge of a change at least as big as that of the loss of its people. The industrial world is finally encroaching on the wild seas around St Kilda - oil companies are being offered thousands of square miles of the sea-bed of Britain's Atlantic Frontier including areas only 25 miles from St Kilda. In July 1999 the UK Government gave the green light for an oil rig to start drilling west of the Outer Hebrides, just 75 miles from St Kilda.

The IUCN, nature conservation advisors to the UN, have concluded that St Kilda is at high risk from oil developments.

Greenpeace has launched an online referendum on whether or not oil exploration should continue in the seabed around the islands of St Kilda, West Scotland. Rob Gueterbock, Greenpeace St Kilda historian and oil analyst, explains:

"Away from the public gaze, the Government has been carving up and selling off the Atlantic seabed around St Kilda, Britain's only Natural World Heritage Site, to multinational oil companies. Drilling could start any day now without any public debate having taken place. The Government has never set up a vote and the oil companies certainly haven't.