Now – you might start thinking we have it in for BP, especially in the Arctic region. No, this is not true. The company seems to be doing enough damage to its corporate reputation and the environment without us. But now it faces further criticism for its operations. This time from the head of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
Chris Rapley has said he is “very uncomfortable” with the idea that BP and Norwegian oil company Statoil are joining forces with US scientists to find oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean under the auspices of a flagship scientific project – the International Polar Year – that is supposedly intended to help tackle global warming. Rapley says looking for oil and gas does not fit “very comfortably within either the scientific guidelines or the ethical underpinning of the IPY”.
A quarter of the world’s oil and gas reserves are believed to be under the Arctic and scientists now predict a new “goldrush” as companies explore for oil and gas as the ice retreats.
So we have another ironic situation: BP joins a scientific survey that is meant to halt climate change but uses it to explore for more oil and gas. Even more ironic is that oil and gas causes climate change which causes the ice to melt. As the ice melts it frees up more land to explore for oil and gas which when burnt will cause more ice to melt. And so it goes on. Is it just me or are we mad