energy

From this morning's ongoing action against Cairn's reckless drilling

Just a moment ago we launched our inflatables at the crack of dawn in the misty Arctic waters of Baffin Bay and headed straight for Cairn Energy's deepwater drilling rig, the Stena Don. A group of highly experienced climbers are now scaling the rig in order to stop the drilling and defend the Arctic. I'm writing this with a deep sense of pride in my fellow activists who are out there in near freezing conditions - taking action on behalf of all of us.

They had to outrun the Danish navy and dodge special forces to get onto the rig but they've done it! And I'm writing this for you -- to make sure you are the first to know about what we're doing today and to say thanks for sticking with us since we left London three weeks ago.

Leila, climate campaigner on the Esperanza, writes from the Arctic... 

Sim from the USA, who is currently on board our ship the Esperanza, writes...

I’ve been aboard the Esperanza for several days now. Having made it through the humbling experience of being utterly incapacitated by seasickness (not a pleasant experience, lemme tell you), I've started to get my feet under me and am able to help out with the day to day workings of the ship.

Loading and stowing the gear for our expedition, helping oil the cable on one of the ship's three cranes, and getting into the rhythm of morning cleaning rotation have all given me a chance to get involved with the crew as well as our campaign team. As I've found most places, putting in your time cleaning seems central to making friends out here.

If you believed the BP-fuelled media spin, you'd think the Gulf of Mexico spill was all cleaned up.

Not so. According to a report today from scientists from the University of Georgia, up to 80 per cent of the oil which leaked from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is still out there.

I’m on the Greenpeace’s ship Esperanza and we're leaving London today. I can’t tell you where we’re going yet, but I can tell you that we are off to confront the oil industry’s reckless search for the last drops of oil on the planet.

We've also released a map that features some of the most dangerous drilling sites in the world.

The BP stations we closed down last week have all long since opened again but the effects our thirst for oil is having on the planet continue. The oil spill in the Gulf is now officially the largest accidental spill ever, and the environmental havoc being wrought in China, Nigeria and elsewhere doesn't get the same news coverage but is just as disastrous.

Meanwhile, lobbyists working for BP and other oil pushers are busy trying to hobble laws and legislation which could set us on the road to reducing our oil dependency and making the transition to a cleaner energy future. One such piece of legislation is the Fuel Quality Directive and if its full potential is realised, it could prevent fuels from dirty sources like tar sands being sold in Europe.

Three months ago we asked you to help rebrand BP and design them a logo better suited to a company responsible for a string of environmental disasters, including the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

After more than 2,000 submissions, over 2,000,000 hits on the Flickr group and more than 25,000 votes, we have a new logo for BP.

Now it's down to all of us to spread it.