Open letter to Mel Gibson
Dear Mel Gibson,
In the Lloyd’s List of September 12th 2007 in the article “From carbon footprints to CO2 ship blueprints” we read that you openly show your support to a project to design vessels twice the size of a normal capesize bulker to transport carbon dioxide (CO2). “BW Shipping boss Andreas Sohmen-Pao reveals green ambitions and has ally in actor Mel Gibson”. This would be done with the intention to use the CO2 “to make oil and gas fields more productive” i.e. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). More than 40 Mt of CO2 are currently used each year in the United States to recover oil. Most of the CO2 comes from deep natural accumulations of CO2 while about 5 % comes from industrial sources. Some of the CO2 used in EOR today is stocked in the well from where it escapes in the mid term, with the exception of the Weyburn oil field pilot project in Canada where the CO2 is recaptured and re-injected for permanent sequestration.
Robin des Bois a French NGO has been fighting for the protection of Man and the Environment since 1985. Robin des Bois has for over 20 years been involved, in the banning of waste storing and waste dumping in or under the world’s oceans. We have very strong reservations on the concepts and projects exposed at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore by Mr Sohmen-Pao. More generally we have serious doubts on currently exposed Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technological solutions.
Treaty for the Arctic Ocean – 2007
The Arctic needs a treaty and a precautionary international approach. Robin des Bois presented at Grenelle de l’environment an environmental round table a proposition concerning the Arctic on the 24th of September 2007.
GRENELLE DE L’ENVIRONNEMENT
Working group No 2: Preserving biodiversity and natural resources
Detail of proposal:
Within the European framework or with other parties the MEDAD (Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development) should initiate a project for an Arctic Ocean treaty. This binding international conventional instrument should target identifying and quantifying the flows of atmospheric, aquatic and acoustic pollutions originating from either internal Arctic Ocean sources or external sources. It should also target the assessment of related effects on the entire Arctic ecosystem, notably on marine resources and try to limit those effects. The atmospheric contribution to the warming up of the Arctic Ocean in terms of greenhouse effect gases and possibly the aquatic contributions should be examined and mitigated. Sanitary and economic consequences of the pollutions and climatic variations and their effects on Arctic States and populations from sub-arctic regions but also migrating animal species should be included in the framework of this Arctic Ocean treaty. Particular attention should be given to risks, disturbances and pollutions associated to the exploitation of fossil resources and minerals as well as shipping and other means of transport.
The Arctic Ocean treaty should be a treaty for the protection of the natural and human environment. It should deal with managing and anticipating the consequences, in the field of chronic and acute, pollutions and in the field of climate variations and their consequences. The intention of this treaty is not to intervene in the marine territorial claims or seafloor territorial claims of Arctic States.
