by James Hrynyshyn
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 18/97) - The Mackenzie Basin Impact Study should give Greenpeace and other environmentalists plenty of ammunition in their battle against what many scientists is the primary cause of climate change: the fossil-fuel industry.

But it probably won't smooth community relations for the crew aboard Greenpeace's converted ice-breaker MV Arctic Sunrise, if and when they make it to Canada's Beaufort coast later this month.

As of the weekend, the Arctic Sunrise was involved in a standoff with an ARCO exploratory oil rig about to be moved from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay to a point just a few kilometres west of the Canadian border.

Greenpeace, which is opposed to all new exploration for fossil fuels, is trying to stop the rig from being moved. ARCO, one of the largest American petroleum companies, is eager to find more and is determined to complete the project. And communities like Tuktoyaktuk, which have lived on the edge of an oil boom for years, aren't likely to switch allegiances too easily.

Greenpeace campaigner Kevin Jardine, however, said from Toronto that the organization "has been told that we'd be welcome to come. The community is interested in talking about the issues."

At best, opinion in the community is divided.

But Tuk residents may not get a chance to meet the Greenpeace crew. Although Jardine said ice conditions are actually better than anticipated -- possibly due to global warming -- the fate and duration of the ARCO protest is unknown.

ARCO spokesman Ronnie Chappell said the U.S. coast guard is preparing to enforce a 500-metre exclusion zone around the rig, after being forced by Greenpeace last Wednesday to delay moving the 100-metre-high rig.

The rig must move by the end of the month, however, according to an agreement between ARCO and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.

ARCO has agreed, said Chappell not to "impede conflict with or bother subsistence whaling," which gets under way soon.