Native anger
on april 15, 1999, natives of Alaska delivered a message directly to oil giant bp Amoco's annual general meeting ( agm), telling shareholders what the management had refused to acknowledge until now: the company's drive for new oil worldwide threatens their culture and livelihood.
Three Alaskan natives travelled thousands of kilometres to attend bp 's agm in London and to make their concerns known directly to company directors and shareholders. They are campaigning with Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group, to highlight the threats from climate change and oil exploration.
"For countless generations my people have relied on the land for survival. We are witnessing dramatic changes in the Alaskan climate from the burning of fossil fuels. An oil spill on the North Slope could destroy our abundant wildlife and our culture in the process,' said Allan Hayton, a native from Alaska. He then asked the company to stop all drilling activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
bp 's us $500 million Northstar development is the first-ever offshore development in the Arctic Ocean and spearheads the company's push to explore new oil reserves. Greenpeace climate campaigner Matthew Spencer said: "How can bp ignore an alarm 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 life by pushing ahead with oil exploration programmes.'
The western Arctic is warming thrice as fast as the global average. Scientific evidence now conforms with the natives' testimonies of climate change.
They have reported that the Arctic ice cap has been declining at a rate of 4.5 per cent in the past decade and is threatening the survival of the Artic fauna, including polar bears and caribou.
Meanwhile, bp Amco has spent us $45 million to win control of solarex, the world's largest solar energy company. By doing so the company could be positioning itself for the non-fossil fuel market in a world concerned about climate change induced by the use of fossil fuels.