Greepeace Activists Occupy Arctic Oil Drilling Platform

This story is re-posted from Common Dreams.

 “Melting Arctic ice is a warning, not a business opportunity.”

Six Greenpeace activists have occupied the Russian oil drilling platform Prirazlomnaya in the Arctic to protest the risky plans for drilling in the pristine ecosystem.

The group includes Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo, who tweeted during the action, “Melting Arctic ice is a warning, not a business opportunity.”

From Greepeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise, Greenpeace Campaigner Dima Litvinov, says, “This is the face of Arctic destruction. Prirazlomnaya is the first ice-capable permanent oil platform in the Arctic. It is a perfect example — it is a personification of the slowly creeping industrialization of this pristine area. And especially, given the information that is coming in all the time about the rapidly decreasing ice cover in the Arctic, it is an obscenity. It is an insult that the same companies that are responsible for this crisis are now seeking to profit from it.”