Richard Dixon: Sensitive Arctic cannot be saved from a spill disaster

This is a black day for the Arctic.

Instead of chasing expensive fossil fuels in sensitive environments we should be putting our efforts into ending our addiction to oil by wasting less energy in the first place and creating clean energy from the wind, waves and sun.

The sensitive Arctic environment is the last place we should be drilling for oil. From the polar bears and whales at the top of the food chain to the plankton at the bottom, most of the animal life of the Arctic is fully dependent on clean water.

Millions of birds fly to the Arctic to breed.

A large oil spill would be devastating for the Arctic's wildlife. Toxic chemicals would increase up the food chain, ending up highest in top predators like seals and polar bears, who are already having a hard time coping with climate change melting the ice.

The whole food chain in the Arctic is really dependent on clean water and the nutrients that are in there. If we damage the water and make it cloudy, that is a problem within itself - if you have a major oil spill, then that really is disastrous for anything in that environment.

The many groups of indigenous people who live in the Arctic also face total destruction of their way of life from a major oil spill. It would be very difficult to clean up any kind of spill in that environment. At least in the Gulf of Mexico it is possible to get a large workforce into place to clean up a spill. In the remote areas of the Arctic, with average winter temperatures of -40C, an effective clean up will be nigh on impossible.

Greenland's decision to allow drilling in the Arctic flies in the face of decisions by the US, Canada and Norway to postpone drilling while the reasons for and consequences of the disastrous spill in the Gulf of Mexico are fully investigated.

While Cairn Energy will inevitably look wherever it can for potential sources of oil, it is down to the Greenland government to stop it.

Our addiction to oil has a high price around the world in human and wildlife terms.

Risking the Arctic's precious environment for a bit more expensive oil just isn't worth it.

• Richard Dixon is director of WWF Scotland.