#arctic ready

We at Shell want to play by the rules—your rules.

The US government has granted Shell "incidental harassment authorization" permits for a number of Arctic seals, whales, and other mammals, including several with widespread popularity, and some considered "endangered." While our permits do not encourage this "harassment" (defined as the disturbance of animals' feeding, breeding, nursing, migration, shelter, and breathing activities), they do recognize that several thousand such individuals may unavoidably be affected in the course of normal oil exploration activities. To address widespread concern about the effect of our drilling on these noble animals, we at Shell are launching the Let's Go! Mercy Poll to allow you to decide which mammal deserves extra protection. Every time one of our crew sees a winning animal, we will immediately take extra precautions to avoid their harassment.* 

Click an animal to vote for it! The first species to reach 10,000 votes wins extra protection.*Let's Go!

  *While we at Shell are grateful the US Government will tolerate the necessary disruption of the marine ecosystem in the pursuit of vital resources, we also recognize that many of our customers experience knee-jerk reactions to the news that so many mammals will be affected. It is to address these concerns that we at Shell are launching the Let's Go! Mercy Poll. This poll allows you—the public—to openly and democratically determine which Arctic mammal could have its Level B Harassment "take" reduced by half during Shell's upcoming Arctic drilling activities. (Such harassment is defined as the disturbance of animals' feeding, breeding, nursing, migration, shelter, and breathing activities.)

For whichever animal first reaches 10,000 votes, our crew will keep a special lookout that will make their harassment significantly less likely. It's an innovative, humane way for you to help us help a few of our new Arctic neighbors—and to make sure that your friends and neighbors remain firmly in favor of Arctic drilling.

In the Let's Go Public! Ad Contest created by Shell, the crowdsourcing approach backfires.

We do also recognize that the Arctic is part of our delicately balanced global climate system, and that further disruption to this system—directly, or indirectly through increased use of fossil fuels—could entail unfortunate consequences. We take such worries extremely seriously, but we must balance these possibilities against the opportunity certainties that Arctic exploration affords.