Charlotte Church adds her voice to Arctic oil protest
Singer will perform outside Shell’s headquarters in London to campaign against the company drilling for Arctic oil and to raise awareness of climate change
Welsh singer-songwriter Charlotte Church is singing to campaign against Shell’s ‘exploitative and nonsensical’ drilling in the Arctic. Photograph: Teri Pengilley/Teri Pengilley for The Guardian
She’s performed for the pope, the Queen and the former president of the United States, but next week Charlotte Church will turn her attention – and her voice – to the employees of the oil giant Shell.
On Wednesday the singer-songwriter and actor will sing a “heartbreaking” song alongside a requiem outside Shell headquarters in London, as its oil exploration vessels gear up to restart drilling for oil in the Arctic. She hopes it will highlight the oil firm’s “nonsensical and exploitative” billion dollar venture under the ice cap and persuade its employees to blow the whistle on the company.
Her performance is part of a month-long protest that Greenpeace is staging, with different groups – from brass bands to bagpipes – playing the same four-piece movement every day during August to highlight Shell’s Arctic venture. The project was inspired by the string quartet on the Titanic, who continued to play as the ship went down after striking an iceberg.
Church said the campaign had struck a chord “because of how unbelievably dumb [drilling in the Arctic] is. It’s exploitative and nonsensical. The reason they can get to this oil is because the Arctic ice is already melting to a degree, but they’re going to drill more and make it worse … if there is some sort of spill they won’t be able to deal with it or clean it up.”
Greenpeace activists have been handing out copies of the music, parts of which were composed for the protest, alongside an email address employees can contact if they decide to blow the whistle on the company.
The three-year Greenpeace campaign has gathered the support of more than seven million supporters worldwide including Emma Thompson, Jude Law and Sir Paul McCartney.
The song that Church hopes will move employees on Wednesday is This Bitter Earth, a piece made famous in 1960 by the blues singer Dinah Washington that Church describes as “one of the most poignant, heartfelt and heartbreaking songs I’ve ever heard”.
She said she had been inspired to join the campaign after seeing “the smart piece of protest art” that was used to persuade Lego to end its partnership with the oil company.
“You can engage in debate as much as you want with these people at corporations ... but it’s not a fair playing field,” she said.
“They’ve got all the power, the money and the control, it’s a David and Goliath situation. A lot of time the best thing you can do to endeavour to change things is to win over the hearts and minds of the population.”
Church hopes the performance will raise awareness of climate change, citing the future of her two children as inspiration.
“We’re just exploiting the world’s natural resources which is just going to result in climate change worsening at a quicker pace. I’ve got two children and I love my kids and I love the world and I think it’s ridiculous what we’re doing. There are alternatives and different ways of doing things and we need to start as soon as possible. These aren’t unrealistic and we need to get this through to our governments and let them know we’re not happy in how they’re exploiting the world for a quick buck,” she told the Guardian.
The timing of the protest is not accidental. On Monday, the Obama administration gave Shell final approval to restart drilling in the Arctic, despite its own analysis revealing a 75% chance of an oil spill if the project in the Chukchi sea continues.
The oil and gas multinational says that it has the expertise and experience “to operate responsibly and be profitable at the same time” with a system that could respond to spills within 60 minutes, 24 hours a day. It is understood that Shell has already spent $7bn (£4.5bn) on the Arctic project, with industry experts saying that the company could hit on reserves of 30bn barrels – a size comparable to the biggest oil fields in the Middle East.
The move by the US government prompted Hillary Clinton to break from the man she hopes to succeed as US Democratic president on the issue. “The Arctic is a unique treasure. Given what we know, it’s not worth the risk of drilling,” she tweeted on Tuesday.
The Arctic is a unique treasure. Given what we know, it's not worth the risk of drilling. -H
Shell is now set to restart after a summer of setbacks. Although drilling began in July, it was unable to drill deep enough to find any oil because of US safety standards mandating the use of a key safety vessel, the icebreaker Fennica. Fennica was delayed in leaving the port in Oregon after Greenpeace activists hung off Portland’s bridge and staged a blockade from kayaks in the water.
The melting of the Arctic sea ice is one of the most publicised impacts of climate change and has been in decline since the late 1970s, when satellite measurements began. However, an unexpected revival in 2013 prompted scientists to say that a recovery could be possible if the steady rise in global temperatures is halted.
Shell has said it does not object to the protest organised by Greenpeace and respect the group’s right to do so, but criticised it for prioritising publicity stunts over engaging in the debate about how to meet the world’s growing demand for energy.
Shell said: “We believe we can play an important role in developing the Arctic’s energy resources. We choose to explore there because we have the expertise and experience to operate responsibly and be profitable at the same time.
“Many Arctic peoples and governments agree with that judgment. They support the opportunity to explore for oil and gas in their territories and those governments have awarded Shell the licenses to conduct those operations.
“The reality is that hydrocarbons will remain a major part of the world’s energy system for many years, not least because they provide the path to prosperity for many millions of people in the developing world, enabling them to enjoy living standards that the western world takes for granted.”
Comments