New oil drilling off Greenland poses unacceptable risk
14 July 2010
An Edinburgh-based oil firm, Cairn Energy, has begun drilling in the Arctic waters off Greenland, despite huge risks of environmental damage, as highlighted by the Gulf of Mexico spill. We want all new oil drilling to be halted while the causes and impacts of the BP disaster are investigated.
Scottish-based oil company Cairn Energy has begun drilling oil exploration wells in the environmentally sensitive waters off Greenland. This is despite the fact that the US, Canada and Norway have all halted new deepwater drilling until there’s a chance for the Gulf of Mexico disaster to be investigated and safety fears allayed.
Even in the Gulf – which is the world’s centre of drilling technology, with its thousands of engineers and immense resources – it’s obviously proving enormously difficult to handle the tragic consequences of the blowout.
Current drilling technology just isn’t reliable enough to prevent a similar catastrophe in the Arctic, which could cause decades of harm in such an ecologically sensitive region.
You can…
- Find out more about our work to protect the Arctic
- Read about the wider consequences of the Gulf oil spill
- Help us halt other damaging oil exploration in sensitive areas
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