Actors join campaign to draw attention to Arctic issue
Source: AP
By DAN JOLING
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Critics of Arctic offshore petroleum drilling have used climbing gear, kayaks and polar bear costumes to protest industrial activity in the Arctic. They're now trying humor.
Actors Alexander Skarsgard of "True Blood" and Jack McBrayer of "30 Rock," along with Andy Bichlbaum of "The Yes Men" activists, are on a Greenpeace ship in the Greenland Sea with a team from the Funny or Die production company to make a comedy series focused on industrial threats to the Arctic.
"It's really important that we reach as many people as possible with the message that the Arctic deserves our protection — it's not just another resource to be exploited until it's exhausted and broken," Greenpeace Arctic campaigner Sune Scheller said by email Thursday from the Arctic Sunset, a 160-foot Greenpeace icebreaker.
Arctic waters, once mostly ignored, are attracting attention as summer sea ice has diminished, expanding opportunities for tourism, shipping and exploratory petroleum drilling. The National Snow and Ice Data Center on Tuesday said the Arctic hit its summer minimum last week with 1.7 million square miles of sea ice, down 240,000 square miles from 2014. It's the fourth-lowest level on record for summer sea ice in September.
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FILE - In this May 10, 2012, file photo, Alexander Skarsgard, a cast member in the film "Battleship," waves at the American premiere of the film in Los Angeles. Critics of Arctic offshore petroleum drilling have used climbing gear, kayaks and polar bear costumes to protest industrial activity in the Arctic. They're now trying humor. Actors Alexander Skarsgard, Jack McBrayer and Andy Bichlbaum are on a Greenpeace ship in the Greenland Sea with a team from Funny or Die to make the a comedy series focused on threats to the Arctic. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
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