cairn

This morning, before dawn, our activists evaded a massive security operation and scaled Cairn Energy's controversial rig off Greenland. We've stopped their drilling.

After dodging Danish Navy commandos in our inflatable speedboats, our activists climbed up the inside of the rig and are now hanging from tents suspended from ropes.

We'll get more news to you as soon as we have it, but for live updates go to www.gobeyondoil.org

Thanks for your support,

Lisa Vickers - on board the Esperanza

So it's official: BP are out of the arctic oil race. Word is that our confrontation with Cairn Energy is scaring off the oil giant. In the words of a senior source, "with the Greenpeace ship already harassing Cairn off Greenland - a company which has an exemplary safety record - everyone realised it would be political madness to give the green light to BP".

We finally managed to upload the video of the crew that our videographer Stephen Nugent made. The internet connection via satellite is pretty terrible up here as we are right on the edge of the northern range for the satellite that normally gives us internet 24/7. I'm so glad you are now able to see it. The video itself took about four days to make, several bars of chocolate in bribes to get people talking, Stephen on camera and me on sound - fumbling around all over the ship - getting in everyone's way and struggling with the pitching and rolling at sea.

Will Rose, independent photographer who regularly works with Greenpeace. He writes from the Esperanza...

We’re in and out of internet range now so I’m not sure when this will go up on the website. As if to mark the occasion thick swirls of fog have cut us off from the recent blue crisp Arctic horizon. 

The crew are subdued but in good spirits albeit a little tired after the rough Atlantic crossing, long working days and the sudden lack of awe inspiring scenery of Greenland’s coastline. Sailing in towards the mountains around Nuuk after being starved of land felt like sailing into a new world, a different planet which for those who hadn’t seen it could only silently gaze in amazement bereft of the ability to speak.

Sim, US activist, writes again from the Esperanza.

In the months following the explosion and subsequent sinking of BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, I spent nearly three weeks in Louisiana’s Gulf coast bearing witness and assisting in documentation of the largest oil spill in US history. I stayed on Grand Isle, a vacation and fishing community that was described to me by its inhabitants as paradise. But it was far from a paradise during my stay - with clean-up crews in white protective suits working around the clock to protect their coastline from the devastating effects of the oil spill and toxic sludge visible on the beaches and marshes. I got a brief glimpse of a way of life that will be deeply changed forever in the aftermath of the oil spill.