Greenland Arctic drilling Greenland

The United States Geological Survey estimates that 30% of the world's undiscovered gas and 13% of the world's undiscovered oil is to be found north of the Arctic Circle. Of this oil, 84% - approximately 90 billion barrels - is expected to be found offshore, some of it in deepwater. Harsh conditions, low temperatures, operational windows cut short by the winter freeze-over, icebergs that threaten to collide with rigs and a delicate ecology that requires meticulous protection all conspire to make oil production here difficult, risky and expensive, possibly more so than any other region in the world.

Greenland is currently the sight of growing concern regarding arctic drilling. The company forfronting the drilling is Carin Energy. Cairn Energy's engineering and operations director Phil Tracy, told an industry conference in Oslo recently that ‘[Greenland] is unforgiving in terms of cost and consequence'.

Recent political posturing about the Arctic is fed by expectations of significant undiscovered oil & gas reserves. Greenland is considered to have major reserves, with the US Geological Survey estimating over 16 billion barrels equivalent of oil and gas off its western coast. Yet until now exploration has been limited, with only six offshore wells drilled - five of them in the 1970s. This compares to 500,000 wells drilled in Canada.

However, Cairn intends to change this. With the Exploration Director describing Greenland as "a true frontier country where oil and gas exploration is at an embryonic stage", the company has built up licences covering 72,000 square kilometres of acreage off the country's west coast, covering an area half the size of England. Cairn has described its Arctic exploration plans as high-risk but potentially "transformational" - stating that "costs will be large so the size of the prize needs to be big" and "There's going to need to be a lot of wells drilled before you're successful."

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Cairn intends to push back the boundaries of current oil & gas exploration, in a relentless drive for new fossil fuel deposits. A slide used in one of Cairn's presentations appears to show receding ice in the Arctic, and implies that the current licences are only the company's "entry position" to the region. Reduced heavy sea ice makes exploration work easier around Cairn's two most "promising" licences, off Disko Island.

However, icebergs in the region have shrunk so significantly that Disko Island is a frequent destination for political and cultural figures inspecting the impact of climate change. Meanwhile, Greenland's Inuit population has been warning of the threats to their physical and cultural survival that climate change creates, and has been building solidarity links with campaigns against fossil fuels elsewhere in the world. Local leader Aqqaluk Lynge acted as a witness in the court trial of  ‘The Kingsnorth Six' who had been charged with disrupting a coal fired power station in Kent.

In the view of Greenpeace: Given the issues of global significance affecting the Arctic and the many significant gaps in the existing legislation, there is a clear need for an overarching Arctic multi-lateral agreement or treaty, in which the Arctic Council could play a leading role, which ensures the highest levels of protection for the Arctic and in particular for the areas of the Arctic Ocean that have traditionally been protected under the ice. While such a transparent, participatory and equitable agreement is being negotiated, nations and stakeholders must ‘freeze the footprint' of growing industrial activities in the Arctic by establishing a moratorium on further industrial development in the areas made accessible by the retreating sea ice. Greenpeace calls upon the United Nations and governments around the world to commit to the following course of action to save the Arctic:

• Establish an immediate moratorium on industrial development in the area of the Arctic Ocean that has historically been covered by sea ice year-round. This ‘line in the ice' is the average minimum sea ice extent between 1979 and 2000, the period before significant sea-ice loss due to climate change was recorded.

• Create a long-term solution by agreeing a permanent, equitable and overarching treaty or multi-lateral agreement that protects the Arctic Ocean environment and ecosystems and the peoples who depend on them.

There are many social issues which characterize this project. Such as:

• Arctic drilling contributes to climate change which threatens the livelihood of local communities. Rising sea level and a reduction in sea ice are allowing higher waves and storm surges to reach the shore, and some coastal communities are already being forced to relocate.

• Indigenous peoples will also be increasingly subjected to negative effects as reduced sea ice causes the animals on which they depend for food to become less accessible and to decline in numbers. Some species are already facing extinction.

• As indigenous communities see dwindling species populations their way of life is being threatened as well as their livelihoods.

• Arctic drilling also has various health impacts from contaminated water, species, and influence on air quality, amongst others.

• In addition, many other stresses brought about by human activities are simultaneously affecting life in the Arctic, including air and water contamination, overfishing, increased levels of ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion, habitat alteration, and pollution due to resource extraction. The sum of these factors threatens to overwhelm the adaptive capacity of some Arctic populations and ecosystems altogether.

Arctic drilling brings with it various environmental impacts which have both local and global international ramifications, for example:

• Contribution to climate change: Some parts of the Arctic are among the fastest warming areas on the planet and consequently the Arctic is experiencing some of the most severe climate impacts - most notably, the rapid decline in the thickness and extent of sea ice. Permafrost is thawing, glaciers are melting, and the massive Greenland Ice Sheet is losing ice at record rates. As the ice melts, more ocean opens up for drilling, leading to more rush from oil companies to drill. As more drilling occurs more melting occurs and the cycle continues. At the same time, the Arctic plays a key role in stalling climate change. The Arctic has been called ‘the world's refrigerator', and one reason for this is the role of sea ice in regulating global climate. Sea ice reflects heat from the sun back into space, whereas the dark open waters of the Arctic Ocean absorb it. As sea ice melts, more of the Arctic Ocean is exposed, meaning that more heat energy is absorbed. This causes more warming, which in turn causes more sea ice to melt and causes yet more warming to occur, continuing the process; an example of a highly dangerous positive feedback loop.

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• Oil spills: The Arctic ecosystem is perhaps the most vulnerable to oil spills on earth. Cold weather, thick ice cover, and slow turnover of plants and animals mean that toxic oil lingers, exposing multiple generations of organisms to contamination. Lack of sunlight will also inhibit the breakdown of spilled oil. Seabirds are especially vulnerable to oil spill as the oil can destroy the insulating capacity of the plumage. Furthermore, spilled oil will keep its sticky and damaging properties for a longer period in cold water. Arctic oil spills may set off irreversible chain-reactions of contamination because inland species, such as polar bears and foxes, rely heavily on coastal resources. As a result, the 'footprint'of an oil spill will extend far inland because coastal species will bio-accumulate toxins as they consume oil-exposed marine preys.

• Inland Pipeline construction and inland impacts: The construction of platforms and pipelines directly threatens the survival of ancient cold-water corals, some of which are 2,000 years old among the oldest living animals on earth. Constructing inland pipelines furthers the impacts of Arctic drilling as it can lead to more inland oil spills, affects on communities, and threats towards livelihood, amongst others.

• Threats towards wildlife: The area is also important to many unique species of marine mammal. Bowhead whales, narwhals, white whales and walruses are winter visitors to Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. Bearded seals also congregate in the area during winter. Between May and June, minke, humpback, fin and blue whales arrive to the area from the south. Ringed seals are seen throughout the year. Harp and hooded seals start their migration along the West Greenland coasts in May-June and stay until November-December. Polar bears can also be present from February to May. Seal pups are more vulnerable to oiling because they are dependent on their natal fur for insulation.