Demonstration against Deep Sea Oil Drilling to be held in Christchurch

On the 11th of November 2013, a demonstration is to be held at the Hereford Street Bridge over the Avon River against deep sea oil drilling in New Zealand Waters, and to support the Flotilla, a group of boats heading to Taranaki to bear witness to Anadarko beginning their exploratory deep sea oil drilling.

This demonstration will involve a mock flotilla, made up of small boats and floatable devices that participants bring along, floating down the Avon River at 12.30pm, as well as flyer and sticker handouts.

A boat from the Flotilla will be setting off from Kaikoura on Monday. Other boats are leaving from Bluff, Wellington and Auckland.

Organiser, Ms White says“ We are highly concerned about the effects that deep sea oil drilling could have in New Zealand waters.”

“New Zealand has a reputation of being a clean green country. We rely on tourism for a large amount of our profit. If an oil spill was to occur in our waters, not only would much of our marine life would be killed, but we would lose our image”

In addition to the very real danger of an oil spill when drilling deeper than ever before, there is the question as to why are we even exploring for new oil, when we know we can’t even burn the oil we currently know about!

The International Energy Agency has said, “No more than one-third of proven reserves of fossil fuels can be consumed prior to 2050 if the world is to achieve the 2 °C goal,” (2 degrees is the internationally recognized limit to average global warming in order to prevent catastrophic climate change.)

ENDS

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