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NEWS: Groups tell Arctic leaders to leave it in the ground

The IEN and Council staff set up an 'oil spill' in front of DFAIT this morning

The IEN and Council staff set up an ‘oil spill’ in front of DFAIT this morning

Nunatsiaq News reports, “As the foreign ministers of Canada, the United States, Norway, Denmark, Greenland and Russia prepare to meet tomorrow at the Arctic Council‘s meeting in Nuuk, a coalition of environmental groups from Canada, the U.S., Russia, Greenland, Denmark and Norway wants them to place a moratorium on offshore drilling in Arctic waters. The open letter delivered May 9 to the ministers says political leaders must start ‘leaving fossil fuel deposits in the ground’ to avoid serious impacts of climate change.”

Signatory groups include Greenland’s Avataq, Friends of the Earth in Denmark, Greenpeace in Denmark, Friends of the Earth in Norway, Greenpeace Norway, Russia’s Kola Environmental Center, the Council of Canadians, Yukon Conservation Society, the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, Friends of the Earth, Global Exchange, and the Indigenous Environmental Network.

“The group plans to demonstrate in front of the foreign affairs department in Ottawa this morning to get their message across. ‘We want to send a message to Arctic Coastal state governments and the Arctic Council that offshore drilling in the Arctic is the wrong way to go,’ said Andrea Harden-Donahue, Energy and Climate Justice Campaigner with the Council of Canadians in a news release.”

Nunatsiaq News is an English-Inuktitut weekly newspaper that has served the people of Nunavut and the Nunavik region of Arctic Quebec since 1973. Nunatsiaq News is based in Iqaluit. Nunatsiaq News is circulated across Nunavut through an arrangement with Arctic Co-operatives. Nunatsiaq News boasts the largest Nunavut circulation of any paper and is available in every Nunavut community. In Northern Quebec (Nunavik) a similar arrangement with the Fédération des cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec ensures that all 14 Nunavik communities receive their newspapers.

The full article can be read at http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/110566_leave_gas_and_oil_in_the_ground_say_environmental_groups/.

You can read more about our Arctic campaign at http://canadians.org/arctic.