Greenpeace, Inuit come together to fight Arctic seismic testing for oil and gas

OTTAWA — Greenpeace and the Inuit are joining forces to protest Arctic seismic testing, warning Ottawa that its plans to gauge oil and gas reserves with high-intensity sound waves pose grave dangers to marine life.

Inuit activists are staging a protest Wednesday in Nunavut’s Clyde River, a tiny Baffin Island hamlet just above the Arctic Circle, a week after Greenpeace took their cause to the United Nations.

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq took aim at Greenpeace this week, challenging the environmental group’s opposition to the seal hunt and alleging it’s using the Inuit to advance its own causes.

But an Inuit environmentalist is turning the tables on Aglukkaq, a Nunavut MP, accusing the Conservative government of “cultural genocide” for its efforts to open up the Arctic to oil and gas exploration.

Niore Iqalukjuak says the Inuit depend on the Arctic waterways for food and that Inuit lives depend on them.

Greenpeace railed against the commercial seal hunt in the 1980s, but recently apologized for the detrimental impact that campaign had on the Inuit.