Emma Thompson: Move away from risky oil extraction, blind greed in Arctic

Dear Admiral Papp,

Last year I visited the Arctic for the first time with my teenage daughter.

I don't know what I was expecting but not, perhaps, to be as overwhelmed and moved as I was. Of course, the Arctic is a place of indescribable beauty, of course her peoples proud and her flora and fauna inexpressibly precious.

But I was struck mostly by her vulnerability. The place we have often been told is starkly unforgiving, tough, demanding, somewhere else to be "conquered" turned out to be Earth's most vulnerable wild space, and its fiercest protector.

Long before climate scientists began monitoring the changes there, this remarkable place has held the Earth safe in her glacial grasp. But as you and I know all too well, recently and more than ever, those fingers of ice are melting, are being destroyed by the race she has protected for so many millennia.

You, Admiral, are about to be in receipt of an historic opportunity to halt this destruction, a most unusual and auspicious opportunity, the kind that may never come again, certainly not in time to count, the kind that goes down in history. It is not hyperbolic to say that changing course on drilling for oil in the Arctic would mean changing the lives of every person alive on this planet today and every generation yet to come.

Recently you told members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that, "The United States is assuming the chair of the Arctic Council at a critical time." And indeed, it is a critical time.

Shell is getting ready to drill in the Alaskan Arctic this summer and start writing one of the saddest chapters in the story of Arctic degradation. You know as well as I do that if oil companies go ahead, sooner or later an oil spill will devastate the Arctic environment. You and the Arctic Council now have a chance to change the plot before the story is written; to move us away from the bygone days of risky oil extraction and the blind greed of a few, and towards a just and fair future that embraces the alternatives that already exist, and charts the course toward the new energy future that this planet of ours so desperately needs, and so richly deserves.

Protecting the Arctic from oil drilling goes hand in hand with protecting the world from the worst impacts of climate change, a path that I know your government supports. It would be utter hypocrisy to veto the carbon-intensive Keystone XL pipeline whilst, on the other hand, opening the Arctic to drilling — simply incongruous with President Obama's rhetoric on climate change.

It should be noted that unlike its preceding chair, the U.S. is at least actively embracing climate change emissions reduction and environmental protection during its two-year mandate at the Arctic Council's helm. The intent is to address the need for an Arctic Ocean Regional Seas Program "to coordinate scientific research and management of the rapidly changing Arctic ecosystem" — that sort of leadership from the U.S. to address these necessary issues is a welcomed way forward.

But we can do better, and we must. Yes, the U.S. must show leadership at the helm of the Arctic Council, but every single country at that table has a responsibility to those who are not. And every single one of us has a responsibility to protect the Arctic as she, in turn, protects us.

And so it is in the spirit of that commitment that I lay the hopes of nearly seven million people, along with my fellow signatories to the Arctic Declaration , at your doorstep. And it is on behalf of these thousands of artists, indigenous organizations, business people, faith leaders, elders, parliamentarians, presidents, scientists, Olympians, royalty, Nobel laureates, explorers, actors, authors and youth groups, that I ask you to assume this responsibility alongside all of us.

We haven't met, you and I, and yet we have much in common. We both hold a special place in our hearts for the Arctic and her beauty. We understand that the Arctic is both the victim of and potentially the aggravator of global climate change. And we are both compelled to go to unusual lengths to protect it. But where I can use my voice to try to inspire people to act for the Arctic, you can use your power to take immediate action to bring the Arctic Council back to its original mandate: the protection of the Arctic environment.

My pen and my profile can only do so much. With your power, your knowledge and your experience, you are in a position to protect the Arctic from oil drilling, to begin to heal this magical place that we both love, and thus to shape a better future for every one of us on this entire planet.

With great hope,

Emma

Emma Thompson is an actress, comedian, screenwriter and activist.

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