On May 1, Dutch police boarded a Greenpeace ship and arrested 30 activists who were trying to prevent a Russian tanker from unloading its oil shipment in Rotterdam. The shipment was Russia’s first attempt to extract oil from the Barents Sea, a move Greenpeace sees as potentially catastrophic for the fragile Arctic ecosystem. Greenpeace activists used paragliders, climbers, a fleet of boats, and inflatables in an effort to stop the tanker, but, according to Dutch police, the ship was still able to moor in Rotterdam harbor. Greenpeace, which has called for an end to offshore Arctic oil drilling in Russia and other parts of the world, sees Arctic oil as a threat not only to the environment but also to global security. According to Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo, “Arctic oil represents a dangerous new form of dependence on Russia’s state-owned energy giants at the very moment when we should be breaking free of their influence.” Most of the activists were released without charge within a few hours of their arrest. For the full story, see http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/01/greenpeace-russian-arctic-oil-tanker and http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27236750.