14 DAY TRIAL // Back in September 2013, Greenpeace members attempted to scale an oil platform belonging to Russian oil company Gazprom, and, in the aftermath of this incident, 30 activists ended up spending several weeks behind bars.
However, it would appear that members of this organization are nowhere near done protesting dirty fuels by boarding oil rigs without being given explicit permission to do so.
Thus, it was this March 24 when a group of Greenpeace members scaled an ExxonMobil oil rig intended for drilling activities in the Russian Arctic.
In case anyone was wondering, the activists did not settle on this date for their latest protest against drilling in the Arctic simply because they felt that March 24 had a nice ring to it.
On the contrary, this date marks the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Gulf of Alaska's Prince William Sound.
At the time when this major spill occurred, a tanker struck a local reef, and some 11 million gallons (40 million liters) of oil worked their way into said waters.
The oil spill occurred back in 1989, yet it was earlier this year when researchers published a study saying that oil pockets originating from this incident were still hidden behind rocks along Alaska's coast.
Hence, Greenpeace members and supporters are asking that future damage to ecosystems such as the ones in the Gulf of Alaska be prevented by banning offshore oil drilling in the Arctic.
“ExxonMobil plans to drill in the most extreme and remote area of the Arctic this year. This is madness – if something goes wrong, they will be all alone in the far north, with rescue equipment located thousands of kilometers away,” Erlend Tellnes, Arctic campaigner with Greenpeace Nordic, said in a statement, as cited by Eco Watch.
“We need to stop all oil companies before they cause the inevitable spill in the Arctic, where the harsh conditions would make it impossible to clean up. Look at Exxon Valdez. It is still affecting Alaskan nature 25 years after the incident,” the environmentalist went on to say.
Media reports say that a total of fourteen activists from as many as seven different countries participated in today's protest against American multinational oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil.
Of these activists, five scaled the West Alpha oil rig and displayed a banner reading as follows: “No Exxon Valdez in Russian Arctic.”
Information available to the public says that the region ExxonMobil has its eyes set on is the Kara Sea. More precisely, together with Russia's Rosneft, the corporation plans to debut oil exploration activities sometime this summer.
Apart from the fact that the Kara Sea is a very harsh environment that many fear Rosneft and ExxonMobil will not be able to handle, the region targeted by the American multinational corporation overlaps with the Russian Arctic National Park.
This region is home to a lot of biodiversity and also benefits from legal protection. Hence, environmentalists are asking that companies such as Rosneft and ExxonMobil not be allowed to explore or exploit it.