Protest halts Petrobras New Zealand exploration but New Zealand has sent a naval vessel to ensure the high-seas dispute between Greenpeace human rights activists and Brazilian-owned Petrobras vessel exploring for oil does not escalate, police confirmed Tuesday.
A New Zealand police superintendent Barry Taylor said he has several officers on board the navy ship Pukaki that is now in the area monitoring the protest at high sea.
After confirmation that New Zealand Navy and police were en route to the human rights defenders on the Greenpeace flotilla aiming to block oil giant, Petrobras of Brazil from deep sea oil drilling, the direct action leader Steve Abel talked about how far the protesters will go to disrupt the search for oil in the Raukumara Basin off New Zealand's East Cape to prevent similar destruction that the Gulf of Mexico people and environment are experiencing.
Tuesday was not the first time that New Zealand's Greenpeace rights defenders cited the Gulf of Mexico oil industry devastation as a prime rationale for their peaceful direct actions against Big Energy. (See: "Flotilla New Zealanders show how to thwart Gulf rights abuses," Dupré, D., Examiner, April 11, 2011)
Greenpeace New Zealand reported on Tuesday, "The united front of te Whānau ā Apanui, Greenpeace and the flotilla opposing deep sea oil drilling is holding its position in the Raukūmara Basin as the HMNZS Pūkakī arrived after eight days of surveillance by an Airforce Orion.
Greenpeace direct action campaigner Steve Abel said, “The Government is putting the rights of an international oil company ahead of those of local people who are defending the waters that have sustained them for generations.”
Abel said that "protesters are sending an "emphatic message" to the New Zealand government that deep sea oil drilling will not be tolerated in New Zealand waters" according to Bangkok Post.
The Brazilian state oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote) said Monday that seismic exploration off New Zealand's coast was halted by the environmental protesters who jumped into the water Sunday and blocked movement of the exploration vessel. ("Protest halts Petrobras New Zealand exploration," Reuters Africa, April 11, 2011)
In a TVNZ Breakfast interview, "Navy ship to monitor Greenpeace oil protests," Abel explained that the flotilla human rights defenders are there to ensure that deep sea oil drilling "doesn't happen."
When the TVNZ interviewer asked Abel, "So what are you prepared to do?" he answered it is their intention "to stay there until which time they cease and desist by departing the area."
Asked if they felt they had public support in their endeavor, Abel said, "We'ce had incredible feedback from the public."
"Clearly the local community on the East Cape are concerned about it and very much against the government's decision to allow this foreign oil company to come and do deep water oil drilling."
"Let's remember that this is a very dangerous industry that Petrobas themselves have been responsible for the deaths of a number of their workers."
"The question I would say is, 'Is this the sort of industry that we truly want here?'"
Government placing corporate rights before human rights
The world is being provided a learning experience in similarities between the New Zealand stand-off and the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe as Greenpeace crystalizes this more each passing day.
"We want to see the government developing jobs and industry around clean, local technology that we can control and we can export," said Abel on Tuesday.
"Deep sea oil drilling is a very risky form of industry that threatens the integrity of our existing economy around tourism, around fisheries and that's exactly what's at risk if we were to have a major oil spill such as the Gulf of Mexico."
The TVNZ reporter stated that, just because something is dangerous, we don't stop doing things like building houses.
"Well, I think you'll find that building houses is essential whereas drilling for oil is not essential," answered Abel.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said the area of the flotilla is within New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone and that police have the right to uphold the law there and could call on the Navy for assistance if required.
“In a world moving away from fossil fuels and turning to new clean energy alternatives, we need clean economic thinking that prioritises investment, creation and uptake of renewable energy technologies. It’s not a question of no economic activity as the Government is falsely trying to portray it, but of what kind. Investing in very hard-to-get-at-oil with real risks to our existing economy, little return, and no safety net if things go wrong, is not smart economics at all.”
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