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Life is more valuable than oil

“Oil spill on the water is a blot on your conscience” Photo: Trude Pettersen

MURMANSK: “Life is more valuable than oil”. Nature and Youth in Murmansk marks that it has been two years since the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Mexican Gulf.

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“The accident was another evidence how unsafe drilling can be”, says Tatjana Kulbakina from Nature and Youth (Priroda I Molodezh, PiM) to Barentsobserver. “If an accident like this was to happen in the Arctic, the consequences could be even worse, because of the fragile nature there”.

“We hace to make ourselves less dependent of hydrocarbons and start developing renewable resources”, she adds.

PiM Murmansk has some 20 active members. About a handful of them showed up in central Murmansk to remind people about the accident in the Mexican Gulf and warn against drilling in the High North. Immediately after they unfolded their banner, a representative from the town administration and a policeman came to check that they had the papers in order. The young activists had got permission to hold their demonstration in a hidden corner of the town’s main square, and only for one hour.

Oppression from the authorities is something the ecological organization is used to. Their office has been without electricity for six months, says Brita Wollmann from the Norwegian sister organization Natur og Ungdom. She and Stian Taraldset are project leaders for the organization’s extensive cooperation with Priroda and Molodezh and visit Murmansk often.