The result is that 31 environmentalists are arrested by the Dutch police

May 2, 2014 11:56 GMT  ·  By

This past May 1, a total of 31 members of environmental group Greenpeace were taken into custody by the Dutch police. As was the case last year, when 30 greenheads with the organization were put behind bars in Russia, the 31 activists arrested yesterday were protesting the oil industry.

More precisely, they were harassing a Russian tanker dubbed Mikhail Ulyanov and trying to keep it from delivering oil to the European market, Mongabay informs.

According to the same source, the Greenpeace members decided to pick on this Russian tanker not because they thought that the name Mikhail Ulyanov had a not-so-nice ring to it, but because the fuel it was carrying was the first shipment of offshore Arctic oil.

Thus, the oil the tanker was transporting came from the Prirazlomanaya platform in the Pechora Sea close to Siberia. The platform belongs to state-owned Russian company Gazprom and is the first to have until now drilled for oil in the Arctic.

“The oil industry and governments are sparing no expense and going to the most difficult, most out of the way places on the planet just to prop up yesterday's energy source.”

“Breaking this chain is not just an environmental imperative, it is a matter of peace and security. The fight to stop Arctic oil drilling is one of the defining battles of our time,” the organization explains its decision to try and block the shipment of offshore Arctic oil.

Information available to the public says that, of the 31 environmentalists who were arrested by the Dutch Police, one happens to be the captain of the organization's ship the Rainbow Warrior. As it turns out, Peter Willcox was also among the activists who spent several weeks jailed in Russia last year.

Despite Greenpeace's best efforts to prevent the delivery of the first shipment of Arctic oil from the Prirazlomanaya platform, it appears that, following the arrest of the 31 activists, the Russian oil tanker made it to Rotterdam Port. The vessel is said to now be unloading its cargo.

As reported on several occasions, Greenpeace and other similar organizations strongly oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic not just because continuing to exploit this dirty energy source is bound to fuel climate change and global warming, but also because spills in this part of the world will greatly upset local natural ecosystems.

“We are demanding arctic protection, we are demanding clean, safe and, frankly, peaceful renewable energy systems, we are demanding climate protection, we are demanding that people and the planet are put before polluters and profit,” the organization writes on its website.