People: Comedy series will raise Arctic issue
Critics of Arctic offshore petroleum drilling have used climbing gear, kayaks and polar bear costumes to protest industrial activity in the Arctic. They’re now trying humor.
Actors Alexander Skarsgard of “True Blood” and Jack McBrayer of “30 Rock,” along with Andy Bichlbaum of “The Yes Men” activists, are on a Greenpeace ship in the Greenland Sea with a team from the Funny or Die production company to make a comedy series focused on industrial threats to the Arctic.
“It’s really important that we reach as many people as possible with the message that the Arctic deserves our protection – it’s not just another resource to be exploited until it’s exhausted and broken,” Greenpeace Arctic campaigner Sune Scheller said by email Thursday from the Arctic Sunset, a 160-foot Greenpeace icebreaker.
Arctic waters, once mostly ignored, are attracting attention as summer sea ice has diminished, expanding opportunities for tourism, shipping and exploratory petroleum drilling. The National Snow and Ice Data Center on Tuesday said the Arctic hit its summer minimum the previous week with 1.7 million square miles of sea ice, down 240,000 square miles from 2014. It’s the fourth-lowest level on record for summer sea ice in September.
Environmental groups say burning oil extracted from the Arctic Ocean seabed will accelerate climate warming and that industrialization will harm polar bears, walruses, whales and ice seals.
Scheller said Greenpeace is in the Greenland Sea to investigate seismic air guns used by the petroleum industry to explore for oil. Shell, Chevron, Statoil and other companies hold leases in the region.
“They’re basically firing very loud pulses at the seabed, trying to figure out where the oil deposits are located,” Scheller said. “These blasts are so loud that they can seriously injure whales and other ocean life. But right now they’re doing this without much public attention or scrutiny.”
Greenpeace has been tracking seismic vessels off Greenland since mid-August. Skarsgard, McBrayer and Bichlbaum came on board in mid-September.
Arctic drilling also has previously caught the attention of celebrity environmentalists.
“Law and Order” star Sam Waterston, a board member of ocean advocacy group Oceana, recently narrated a two-minute video on the risk of Arctic drilling that the organization has posted on its website.
Carolyn Prousky, head of public relations for Funny Or Die, said by email the Arctic voyage comedy series will be short videos.
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