The Minerals Management Service of the US Department of Interior has approved Shell Inc.’s Exploration Plan to explore two leases in the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska in the Arctic region.The US decision has resulted in wide protests from conservationists in the area. Organisations such as the Pacific Environment and Centre for Biodiversity have already registered their protest with the federal decision.Protests rage in the wake of potential threat that the drilling would cause to the Arctic environment.
Lives of several endangered Arctic fauna including the critically endangered polar bear, bowhead whales, Pacific walrus and ribbon seal will be put in serious danger by the pollution caused by the proposed drilling activity.
Environmental activists condemn the decision by reminding that the Arctic is one of the riskiest places on the planet to carry out such industrial activities. The noise level produced by the drilling would lead to the pollution of both water and air in the neighbouring area.
MMS document announcing the decision says that Shell will be facing strict regulations for the operation. The announcement clearly states the non-applicability of a federal court’s decision which came in April 2009. The court had thrown out the Interior Department's 2007-2012 offshore oil and gas leasing program after finding that part of the department's environmental analysis was inadequate.
“The sales were included in the 2002-2007 five year oil and gas leasing program and are not affected by the recent court decision on the current leasing program, which sent the 2007-2012 program back to MMS for additional analysis under section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act,” says the MMS press release.
Such technical grounding to give permission to the current plan would in no way reduce the environmental impact of the drilling operation. Apart from the threat to Arctic creatures the plan also posits danger to the subsistence activities of Inuit populations of the region.
However strict the regulations be, it is obvious that any activity on the Arctic region would have catastrophic environmental impacts. The sensitivity of the region has already been listed by several environmental studies including those funded by the federal government.
The present decision seems to overrule all such findings and close eyes against all the warnings made of a changing climate. This decision pushes Obama’s promise to improve on the climate change combat plans to the margins and brings the oil hungry economic strategy similar to the Bush administration to the forefront.
Climate change, it seems, is yet to be seen as an issue that demands immediate action. Whereas the fact remains that action to combat climate change cannot wait. Such decisions from the developed world will send a wrong signal to the developing. And climate would continue to change regardless of the magnitude of the deal that is shaping to be sealed. That would be sealed forever never to be unsealed.
Author: Krishnakumar G.
