The world’s biggest oil and gas companies are competing for the
enormous reserves of natural gas and oil in the Arctic, but the
ecological and economic consequences of a major oil spill would
be catastrophic. The rush to explore the Arctic’s enormous
reserves is both hypocritical and absurd, says Rod Downie, Polar
Policy and Programme manager at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
UK. “In the UK, we are committed to legal targets with big
reductions in carbon emissions of 80 percent by 2050 in our
Climate Change Act. Globally, at the UN climate change summit in
Cancun in 2010, 194 nations committed to a less than 2°C rise in
temperature… "But to achieve those international targets, over
80 percent of all known oil and gas reserves has to stay in the
ground. And if we can only take out 20 percent of what remains,
going ever deeper into more remote locations will be absurd and
illogical," Downie exclaims.Yet the risk of looking stupid has
rarely ever deterred a company from trying to earn a quick buck;
and with oil a