Former Beatle and life-long animal and environment friend Sir Paul McCartney has joined Greenpeace's campaign to help Save the Arctic. In a statement, the musician writes about 1968, a year revolution was in the air - much like 2012 - and when a single image of delicate Earth was captured from space, Earthrise. As McCartney writes 'that single image made such an impact on the human psyche that it's credited with sparking the birth of the global environment movement - with changing the very way we think about ourselves.'
Forty years later, and with the polar ice rapidly melting, McCartney has joined the Greenpeace movement to fight the oil giants moving in to digging up the Arctic seabed in search of find fossil fuels.
"Since Earthrise was taken we've been so busy warming our world that it now looks radically different from space. By digging up fossil fuels and burning our ancient forests we've put so much carbon into the atmosphere that today's astronauts are looking at a different planet."
Speaking about his dedication to the cause McCartney notes: 'Here's something that just baffles me. As the ice retreats, the oil giants are moving in. Instead of seeing the melting as a grave warning to humanity, they're eyeing the previously inaccessible oil beneath the seabed at the top of the world. They're exploiting the disappearance of the ice to drill for the very same fuel that caused the melting in the first place. Fossil fuels have colonized every corner of our Earth, but at some time and in some place we need to say, "No more." I believe that time is now and that place is the Arctic."
To date more than one million have signed up at www.savethearctic.org to show their support for the campaign. As an Arctic native I've already signed it. And I think you should too.
And you can, like Sir Paul join the Arctic Rising online movement, which gives you the chance to be one of five Arctic animals - a polar bear, a snowy owl, an Arctic fox, a walrus or a narwhal. No prize for guessing which one Sir Paul is...
