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Message: Arctic under threat from oil industry.

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Arctic under threat from oil industry.

posted on Sep 05, 07 12:34PM

A US court has banned Shell from starting to drill for oil in the Arctic. This follows a successful legal challenge by indigenous Alaskans, assisted by environmentalist groups, who believe that polar bears and whales would be put at serious risk.

The ban by the US Court is now pending a hearing on this controversial issue and follows a campaign against Shell and its partners by a panel of experts from the World Conservation Union, who urged the operators to do more to protect the western grey whales around Sakhalin Island.

Such was the concern amongst local people and environmentalists, when Shell was given permission by the US minerals management service earlier this year to undertake exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea, that it gave rise to the formation of a protest campaign that has successfully argued that drilling should not go ahead until a proper survey of the impact on the environment is undertaken.

A spokesman from the Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD) claimed: “Polar bears are already threatened by global warming. Opening up some of their important habitat in the United States to oil drilling and development would push them ever further down the path to extinction.\"

The ban is said to have come as a great relief to many local people – even though a hearing to take place as soon as August 14th, in San Francisco, could reverse the decision in Shell and its partners favour.

One issue that environmentalists want an answer to is that of whether it would be possible to clear up any sizeable crude oil spills in the freezing waters of North Alaska – which is home to both bowhead and beluga whales. Of course Shell claims that it is confident that it can - what else could they be expected to say under the circumstance Land & People wonder!

Before major oil extraction can begin, Shell needs to drill up to 12 exploration wells in the Beaufort Sea and the Flaxman Island areas of the Arctic. Up until now oil companies have been barred from drilling in these environmentally sensitive areas - although President George Bush, who has close contacts with the oil industry, has continually raised the possibility that it will be opened up to them.

However one issue that has already upset the environmentalist lobby is the response from the Sakhalin Energy company, of which Shell is a major player, that it is \"not technically feasible\" to meet the request from environmentalists implement stricter criteria for the management of noise to avoid disrupting the endangered species as it migrates between eastern Russia and southern China. Environmentalists have greeted this response as \"extremely disappointing and potentially unsafe for the western grey whale population”.

Environmentalists the world over, will be awaiting the result of the San Francisco hearing with much interest, however few doubt that the oil industry will get their way to a greater or lesser extent!