ALASKA NATIVES TAKE MESSAGE OF CLIMATE CATASTROPHE TO BP AGM
Klaus Merkle
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ALASKA NATIVES TAKE MESSAGE OF CLIMATE CATASTROPHE TO BP AGM
April 15, 1999 - Alaska Natives today delivered a message
directly to BP Amoco's Annual General Meeting to tell
shareholders what management have refused to hear: the company's
insatiable drive for new oil worldwide threatens their culture
and livelihood in the Alaskan Arctic.
Three Alaska Natives of the Yup'ik and Gwich'in people
travelled thousands of miles to attend BP's AGM in London and
made their concerns known directly to company directors and
shareholders. The Alaska Natives are campaigning with Greenpeace
to highlight the threats from climate change and oil
exploration. The Western Arctic is warming three times faster
than the global average.
Scientific evidence now accords with the Native testimonies of
climate change, finding that the Arctic ice pack has been
declining at a rate of 4.5 0n the past decade, and threatening
native wildlife including polar bears, walrus and caribou.
Allan Hayton, a Gwich'in Athabascan from Arctic Village, Alaska
told the BP directors from the floor of the AGM, "For countless
generations the Gwich'in people, my people, have relied on the
land to provide for our survival. Already we are witnessing
dramatic changes in our Alaskan climate from the burning of
fossil fuels, and an oil spill on the North Slope would
effectively destroy our abundant wildlife and our native
cultures in the process. Sir John Browne, respectfully I ask
you, will you cancel Northstar, and commit your company to not
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?"
BP's $500 million Northstar development is the first ever
offshore development in the Arctic Ocean and spearheads the
company's push to explore for new oil reserves despite evidence
that to avoid dangerous climate change most fossil fuel reserves
must stay under the ground.
Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Matthew Spencer said, "How can BP
ignore an alarm call from people who have seen the changes over
the past two decades in the land where they have lived for
thousands of years? BP is undermining climate protection and
threatening subsistence ways of life by pushing ahead with oil
exploration".
Also at the AGM were 60 members of the BP shareholder splinter
group, SANE BP, who spoke directly to other shareholders at the
meeting in a bid to garner support for directing the company
away from oil exploration and into renewable energy development.
The Alaskans, Sterling Golongergen, her son Edward, and Allan
Hayton, will go on from the BP AGM to address company staff at
a lunchtime gathering outside BP's Britannic House from 1.30 to
2pm.
For photos and further information call the Greenpeace Press
Office on +44 (0) 171 865 8285
Audio of Allan Hayton's statement can be found at -
rtsp://streamer3.galaxy-net.net/greenpce/ahnew.rm
Please visit the SANE BP site - http://www.sanebp.com
The Arctic Native testimonies can be found at -
http://www.greenpeace.org/~usa/campaigns/climate/alaska.html