logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2023
9m 3s

Arctic 30: Russian arrest of Greenpeace ...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

On 14 September 2013, the Arctic Sunrise - a ship belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace - embarked on an Arctic expedition.

Its aim was to disrupt the first day of drilling on a newly built oil rig.

This would be the first to drill for Arctic oil - something that had only been made possible in recent years by melting ice in the region.

Frank Hewetson, a Greenpeace campaigner, was on board. He tells the story of the protest and arrest of 30 people by the Russian authorities.

A Falling Tree production for BBC World Service.

(Photo: Sign asking for Frank Hewetson's release. Credit: In Pictures Ltd/Corbis via Getty Images)

Up next
Today
Creating CAPTCHA
In 2000, as the internet expanded, websites faced a growing challenge to stop spam bots from flooding their systems.To separate humans from machines, researchers at the United States’ Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, created the Completely Automated Public ... Show More
10m 7s
Yesterday
The creation of the International Criminal Court
In 1998, at a conference organised by the United Nations, a blueprint was devised for what would be the world's first permanent International Criminal Court.Judge Phillipe Kirsch chaired the Rome conference that led to the formation of the court. He tells Gill Kearsley about the ... Show More
10m 23s
Aug 22
Geneva Conventions
In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the Battle of Solferino, in Italy. He couldn’t believe the lack of aid for the wounded soldiers and came up with two ideas – a voluntary aid organisation and an international treaty to protect those injured in wartime. They went o ... Show More
10m 2s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2023
Marking 50 years since the 1973 global oil crisis
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. To mark 50 years since the global oil crisis, we’re focusing on oil - from discovery to disaster. We hear from Dr Fadhil Chalabi, then the deputy secretary general of Opec (Organ ... Show More
52m 10s
Oct 2021
The child environmental activist of the 1990s
To mark the start of the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP26, taking place in Glasgow in the UK, we’re looking back at the history of our awareness of climate change with some of the scientists and activists who have been trying to solve this global crisis in recent decades. W ... Show More
50m 11s
Aug 2022
Russia turns off the gas
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline will stop for three days for repairs according to the Russian government, but many European leaders fear Russian could extend this to drive up already rising gas prices across Europe. We hear from Stefan Lechtenböhmer, Director of Future Energy Stems at ... Show More
26m 28s
Jan 2019
Exxon Valdez: Oil Meets Water | 1
A supertanker carrying 53 million gallons of crude oil runs aground in Prince William Sound sparking the worst man-made ecological catastrophe in the country’s history at the time. As Exxon struggles to get the cleanup underway, fishermen worry that this is the end of life as the ... Show More
37m 18s
Mar 2022
167. Oil: The Making of the Modern World
Tom and Dominic are joined by Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge, to talk about the incredible influence of oil over the last couple of centuries. Discussion covers the first oil well ever drilled, how it's hard to overestimate Hitler's ... Show More
45m 4s
Dec 2023
Stories from the New Silk Road: Iceland
In 2013 Iceland made history by becoming the first European country to sign a free trade agreement with China. It was aimed at increasing exports from Iceland to China as well as opening up Iceland to cheaper Chinese consumer goods. Geothermal energy has meant that Iceland is eff ... Show More
27m 27s
Jul 2022
The Sunday Read: ‘The Rise and Fall of America’s Environmentalist Underground’
Warning of imminent ecological catastrophe, the Earth Liberation Front became notorious in the late 1990s for setting fire to symbols of ecological destruction, including timber mills, an S.U.V. dealership and a ski resort. The group was widely demonized. Its exploits were condem ... Show More
51m 21s
Oct 2022
What should Africa do with its fossil fuel reserves?
Africa accounts for around 10 per cent of the world's known fossil-fuel reserves. But plans to build an oil pipeline through East Africa to transport hundreds of thousands of barrels a day have been condemned by the European Union. The pipeline, which runs from the source in Ugan ... Show More
27m 43s
Oct 2018
Norway: From Oil to Renewables
We know that to keep our climate safe we need to stop burning fossil fuels and move to renewables. But how? Leading scientists and government delegates have been asking that question this week at a gathering in South Korea. Perhaps inspiration can be found in Tromso, in the Norwe ... Show More
49m 21s