Climate Rescue Weblog: Polar bear activists

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From Juliette, on board the Arctic Sunrise

Early this morning, three inflatables were lowered from the deck of the Arctic Sunrise and joined the bow of the Pascha - a ship transporting 70,000 tons of coal to Portugal from Svalbard.

In the past few days, the same activists blocked the loading of the Pascha for over 27 hours, even staying out during the night in minus 15 degrees. But today the activists were not alone - they were joined by two polar bears!

Polar bears are severely at risk by the continuing use of coal - the main source of human produced greenhouse gases. And as if that's not bad enough - coal is also being mined right in their backyard.

If we do not rein in our carbon emissions, soon the glacier that I saw, including one outside my window right now, will melt away. We have been documenting the effects of climate change on these glaciers as well as hosting top scientists on the Arctic Sunrise for the past three months. There is still much left undiscovered, and precaution demands that we reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases now.

It is essential that heads of State and Governments go to the Copenhagen climate summit and ensure this happens. It is their role, as world leaders, to lead the way. They should be the ones at the bow of the Pascha right now - but we'll settle for seeing them in a meeting room with warm coffee and Danish cookies in December.

As the snail's pace of the climate talks in Bangkok again confirm that politicians are not taking climate change seriously enough, we will continue to confront the fossil fuel problem at its source, whether it is coal, oil or tar sands.

The coal loading site in Svea, Savlabard -- where activists blocked the loading of coal for over 27 hours.

Comments

someone should tell all those poor polar bears who are drowning that there is no such thing as climate change happening.when will people decide its time to care about our planet and all of her creatures?

Posted by: lorie | October 6, 2009 5:04 PM

Wow these activists got balls!

Posted by: Yarko | October 7, 2009 7:13 PM

im so depressed by news like these..sometimes i don't know what to do

Posted by: nova starr lacerna | October 8, 2009 4:15 PM

Not ony the politcians have to change.We have to take actions and change our habits.

Posted by: Pierre Thionville | October 8, 2009 4:16 PM

Brilliant!

Posted by: Scott Prater | October 8, 2009 7:07 PM

God bless all ppl caring about this planet :)

Posted by: Houda ag | October 8, 2009 11:02 PM

Could we build some floating devices for the bears to rest between distances in the ocean?...maybe easier than changing the global warming...