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The Times From the Deputy Executive Director, Greenpeace UK Sir, We agree with Mr Rodney Legg of Steep Holm (letter, June 20) that certain places should be "sacrosanct", including Rockall. Our presence on the rock is designed to achieve that end. We oppose the development of the Rockall Trough and Plateau as a new oilfield. This "Atlantic frontier" oil province will not only add to Britain's fossil fuel reserves at a time when industrialised nations should be leaving oil, coal and gas in the ground because of climate change, but it is also, we believe, an unlawful development. Greenpeace, the RSPB, the Marine Conservation Society and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society have all complained to the European Commission that the 17th-round oil licences for this area were granted without proper application of the Environmental Impacts Assessment Directive. Moreover, we believe the UK Government has also failed to apply properly the Habitats Directive, and so we shall be seeking a judicial review. I visited Rockall yesterday. Numerous kittiwakes and guillemots were happily resting there, while a seal and a minke whale are more or less resident around the base. Whereas our "survival capsule" is held in place by straps and stands mainly free from the rock, there is considerable evidence of physical damage done by past visitors who have drilled holes, blown off the summit to fit a now broken navigation light, and painted a large Union Jack on the rock, not to mention old shell holes from naval gunnery practice. What is really at stake here is the future of the global commons-air and sea-and the threatened industrialisation of a huge swath of relatively pristine ocean, rich in whales, birds and other life. In 1971, during a House of Lords reading of the Rockall Bill [letter, June 25] which made the islet part of the United Kingdom Lord Tanlaw asked the Government if "this small speck, if you like, on our planet surface" could be "left alone by Homo sapiens in perpetuity". Such an assurance would, he said, "go some way towards confirming the sincerity" of Government's "intentions to safeguard our environment for the future" (Hansard, Lords, Col 754, November 18,1971). Sadly, since that time, successive governments have pursued a policy of making Rockall the centre of a vast marine industrial estate. This is, on the fifth anniversary of "Rio", hardly a "sustainable development".
Yours faithfully
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