Posted by David Gordon

On the first day of climate talks in Copenhagen, I have been thinking a lot about rhetoric vs. reality.  The last few days have been abuzz with rumors that the climate talks will result in a deal.  Obama changed his plans to attend the final day of the conference, befitting his role as a major world leader.  The pressure will be on U.S. negotiators to make sure that Obama’s trip is not in vain.

I hope that they are right and that we will get a real, enforceable, meaningful international agreement that leads to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.  Our planet is crying out for this.  Kudos to the newspapers around the world that banded together to prove that an international agreement is, in fact, possible (at least among newspapers) by printing the same editorial calling for a meaningful agreement:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/06/copenhagen-editorial

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Posted by David Gordon

One of the best things about the Arctic Council is information sharing and learning about some of the impressive scientific work going on around the Arctic.  Today’s meetings were dominated by scientists and working groups reporting on the diverse variety of projects that they have taken on.

Alaska glacier. Photo by Britt Constantine, mother and lifelong Alaskan.

Posted by Rachel James

In continuation of our circumpolar work focusing on the impacts of the petroleum industry to the Alaska’s Arctic people and wildlife, I traveled with George Edwardson, president of the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, to Norway, to work with fishermen and to connect with Norwegian media on Arctic issues.

Hosted by the World Wildlife Fund, Norway, we participated in a conference attended by fishermen and local advocates in Svolvaer, Lofoten, which is located in northern Norway above the Arctic Circle in the Barents Sea.  The fishermen are concerned about impacts of seismic testing in their fishing grounds.

While in Oslo, we met with many members of the media, including the indigenous Saami media, to raise the issue of the presence of the Norwegian StatoilHydro’s newly purchased leases in Alaska’s high Arctic Sea, the Chukchi. This area is critical to Inupiat subsistence communities and is critical habitat for bowhead whales, polar bears, ice seals, and walrus. StatoiHydro does not allow petroleum activity in areas of the Barents Sea that are ice-covered due to lack of oil spill clean up technology.  However, in February they purchased leases in the Chukchi, which is covered in ice over 9 months of the year.

The Norwegian National media had a great interest in the issue. The Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) covered the issue and ran several stories. This included a top story on their main evening news, focusing on Norwegian double standards regarding petroleum activity in high Arctic waters.

Offshore drilling with push polar bears closer to the brink of extinction.

Posted by Sarah Kagan.

While Congress debated hotly contested energy packages, the Department of Interior was exposed for rampant corruption, drug use and sexual misconduct in a report issued last week.  With such high gas prices, Americans deserve real solutions to our energy security problems and honest, trustworthy agencies to implement them. Until the Department of Interior cleans house and reevaluates their entire culture of corruption, Congress should not authorize new drilling plans for the agency to implement.

The Minerals Management Service—the hotbed of the scandal—is in charge of managing our offshore drilling programs. This means that those entrusted with deciding how to use American’s resources were getting drunk at Shell-sponsored golf games or were literally in bed with oil company reps. Our government was cheating on America with Big Oil. Now that they’ve been caught, will things change?

Currently, Big Oil and their government friends are trying to jam through energy packages in Congress that will continue special treatment of oil interests and increase oil companies’ profits—at the expense of the average American citizen and special ecological areas that deserve protection. Senator Bill Nelson from Florida said it best: “The rest of the United States government doesn’t need to jump in bed with” the oil industry. Instead, we need to find real solutions to the current energy crisis.

We already know we can’t drill our way to energy security—even oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens admitted that. A recent national energy poll indicates that 83% of Americans support a plan to end our addiction to oil through investments in clean energy—some 20% more than those who support increased offshore drilling. Furthermore, the costs of drilling outweigh the benefits. According to the Department of Energy, offshore drilling will bring no relief at the pump. So for no economic advantage, Americans are being asked to increase our dependence on polluting and finite fossil fuels and put coastal communities, wildlife and ecosystems at great risk.

We’ve already seen the MMS recklessly sell off over 70 million acres of America’s rapidly changing Arctic waters to Shell and other oil companies—despite clear evidence that doing so will increase global warming, push polar bears closer to extinction and threaten the subsistence lifestyles of Alaska Native communities. Even the MMS’s own Environmental Impact Statement on the Chukchi Sea estimates there is a 40% chance of one or more spills spewing more than 42,000 gallons of oil into Arctic waters. What’s more, the environmental conditions in this icy region preclude even cursory clean-up efforts, and no reliable method exists for cleaning up oil in broken sea ice. Proposals to expand oil and gas exploration pose unacceptable risks to a system that is already badly stressed by global warming. They will also perpetuate our addiction to fossil fuels while further worsening the impact of climate change.

Instead, we need energy plans that will actually make a difference. A serious national commitment to renewable energy will put our economy back on the path to prosperity by bringing energy costs under control, creating over 820,000 new jobs, and making us more energy independent. The honest answer to our oil problem is to use less of it, and that means better fuel economy and a shift toward renewable energy. Instead of the failed policies of the past, it’s time to break our addiction to fossil fuels by shifting our priorities—and our policies—toward clean energy sources like wind and solar power and efficiency measures.

We shouldn’t have to watch MMS’s walk of shame. Congress needs to take a stand. They plan to hold hearings in response to this report; they should also stop any new drilling plans. Its time for government to break-up with Big Oil and push forward real energy solutions that actually help Americans and increase our energy security.

Sakhalin-II caused severe environmental and social damage

Posted by Rachel James and Leah Zimmerman.

On the morning of September 7, 2008, Exxon and Sakhalin Energy prepared to face off in a much-anticipated soccer match to celebrate Oil Workers’ Day. Meanwhile, we (Rachel and Leah, two Pacific Environment staffers) packed a vehicle and headed north on the island with two staffers from Sakhalin Environment Watch, including Dmitry Lisitsyn, a superstar of the Russian Far East environmental movement. We traveled with Dmitry and Katya for three days along the Sakhalin-II pipeline route, a several hundred mile gash running the length of the otherwise wild island.

Dmitry’s questions are relentless. Whether addressing us, shopkeepers on the side of the road, or construction workers on the pipeline route, Dmitry is able to disarm and charm, while extracting critical information with measured precision. For us, time with Dmitry is a lesson in the art of community organizing as well as a lesson about Sakhalin-II itself.

We are struck time and time again by similarities between Shell’s activities on Sakhalin Island and the company’s current strategies in the Alaskan Arctic. Shell could easily write a textbook on how to break promises, give and take bribes, buy off scientists, employ divide and conquer tactics with local opposition, and emasculate environmental assessment processes.

Sakhalin Island was once a prison destination. Today, oil and gas pipeline infrastructure crisscross the island and inflation from the flux of oil executives and construction works has seriously changed the capital city, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. A two-room apartment goes for an exorbitant $1600/month, food prices are among the highest in Russia, and luxury SUVs can be counted by the dozens. While oil executives enjoy a luxurious lifestyle on Sakhalin, Sakhaliners bear the brunt of the grossly inflated costs for food and housing in addition to the devastating environmental, social and economic damage Sakhalin-II brought.

Now that construction of Sakhalin-II is nearing completion, Sakhalin Environment Watch predicts its next great battle will be poaching. We saw first-hand this week how Sakhalin’s rivers, like many on Kamchatka, are being raped by poachers who operate without fear of punishment from disempowered or corrupt government agencies. Imagine thousands of salmon returning to spawn in the river where they were born after years at sea. Now imagine a net stretched across the entire mouth of the river, preventing only a handful of fierce jumpers from among the thousands to return upstream to spawn. After a few years of this, we don’t understand why people are surprised that there are no fish left in the rivers. And so, Dmitry and SEW plot their next move …