Environmentalists to pool efforts over Arctic oil production in 2012

All Russian environmental organizations will focus on Arctic oil production hazards in 2012, which was declared the Year of the Arctic by WWF Russia, environmentalists reported on Tuesday.

“We will act jointly on the issue of oil drilling in the Arctic, because this is a major problem,” Ivan Blokov of Greenpeace Russia told a RIA Novosti news conference. “Imagine a disaster similar to the one we saw in the Gulf of Mexico. Considering what can happen to offshore oil rigs and overland oil pipelines, we can expect any surprises.”

He also cited Roshydromet statistics indicating that northern rivers carry into the Arctic Ocean nearly 500,000 tons of oil and oil products each year.