Ecosystems
The Arctic is home to several magnificent creatures.
These ecosystems are also important as they provide future generations and current generations with vast resources. Harming these vulnerable environments can cause imbalance and ripple effects that leads to a reduction of these resources. This is mentioned in the lawsuit as an important aspect to consider regarding §112.
Life in the Oceans
The Arctic oceans are home to several different species ranging from fish to mammals.
These species are specialized to their environment, adapted to a certain range of climatic parameters such as temperature, pH and nutrient levels.
Due to their special adaptations these animals are spesifically vulnerable to climate change, but also disturbances in the environment, such as seismic activity during oil exploration and potential oil spills
Seismic activity
Seismic activity is a technique using soundwaves to make a map of the ocean floor and the crust of the eart. When searching after oil, this is used to map spaces under the top-layers of the eart that could contain oil and gas.
This technique interfere with several of the species in the arctic areas.
Species such as whales are communicating using soundwaves under water, and these are disturbed in areas with seismic activity.
The sensory organs of several types of fish and whales are also damaged by the extreme soundwaves of seismic activity (both due to the soundwaves and pressure waves it creates), which can disable their abillity to detect pressure and sound, increasing their vulnerability.
As all of this activity demand technology and machines, the presence of these structures may cause further physical damage to fish and whales due to interference with structures.
Life on the Ice
Several of the species in the Arctic areas, such as polar bears, arctic foxes, seals and walrusses are dependent upon sea ice for survival and reproduction.
These animals are already suffering from loss of sea-ice cover in the Arctic due to climate change and increased temepratures.
Barents sea is an important bridge between the mainland of Norway, Russia and arctic areas permanently covered by ice.
Loss of sea ice cover reduces the area where these species can reproduce, and make migration between land and food sources longer and more exhausting.
These animals can also be disturbed by structures associated with oil exploraton and potential oil spills may have fatal consequences.
Life in the Air
The arctic areas and the Barents Sea is home to a variety of bird species, using the vast resources in the ocean as their main food-source.
These birds migrate between the mainland and the open oceans, diving to great depths to collect fish for food, both for themselves and their offsprings.
These birds are vulnerable to several factors linked to oil production and climate change. Craching with structures on riggs and oil spills can be fatal for these birds, who already struggle to keep their population numers up due to changes in their homes caused by climate change.
Oil Spills
Oil spills can have fatal consequences for life under the water, life on the ice and in the sky of the Barents Sea.
Platforms that would be set out on the Barents Sea would be several miles from the shore, and it would take hours for cleaning boats to arrive at the site of a potential oil spill.
Due to the increased ammount of extreme weather, large waves and currents, the risk of damage to equipment is higher than usual in the Barents Sea, and the risk of oil spills is also at a higher level. These factors also increase the risk of rapid spreading of an oil spill and further slow down the arrival of boats to clean up the oil.
This might leave the oil in the Barents sea for a longer time, exposing the creatures living there to toxins and potential physical damage due to contact with the oil.