Cesky Krumlov, South Moravia, July 7 (CTK) – Dozens of Czech Greenpeace activists blocked a dummy oil platform in their ships to express their protest against the planned pilot oil extraction by Shell in the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Tuesday.
Cesky Krumlov, whose medieval heart is UNESCO-listed, was chosen to stress how absurd it is to extract oil in the untouched wild, Greenpeace activist Petr Kukca said.
“Extracting oil in one of the last untouched areas of the wild on the Earth is as absurd as putting up an oil platform in the centre of a UNESCO heritage site,” Kucka said.
The topic of mining in the Arctic is a source of concern for many people, activist Lucie Jakesova said.
A petition for the protection of the ice landscape has been signed by seven million people across the world in the past five years, Jakesova said.
“The movement for the protection of the Arctic is on the rise. Five years ago, we did not have the slightest idea of how strong a topic we opened,” she added.
In addition, a man disguised as a polar bear symbolising the Arctic was roaming the town’s centre Tuesday.
Several activists informed tourists about the oil extraction in the town centre.
The protest in Cesky Krumlov is a part of the Global Week of Action in support of the Arctic.
Some experts say oil extraction is extremely risky in the Arctic as it is all but impossible to remove the impact of an oil disaster there.
It was the Russian Gazprom that started extracting oil in the Pechora Sea in the westernmost Arctic in December 2013.
U.S. experts believe that some 30 percent of untapped global deposits and 13 percent of oil deposits in the world are found in the Arctic.
