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GUESTS: Daphne Wysham, director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Center for Sustainable Economy, Sweetwater Nannauck, Director of Idle No More Washington.

Only 6 weeks after the federal government approved a permit for Royal Dutch Shell Oil to commence with exploratory drilling in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea, the global fossil fuel giant has decided to abandon its operations there indefinitely. The company is claiming that its decision was based on disappointing preliminary findings of oil and gas reserves.

Shell has poured billions of dollars into potential Arctic sea oil and gas. It has claimed the offshore Arctic drilling was a “potential game changer.” In fact, the US Geological Survey supported those claims, having estimated that the area contains at least 26 billion barrels of oil.

Why then did the world’s third largest oil company decide to pull out? Activists who have confronted Shell in creative ways over Arctic drilling in the last few months say their work has something to do with it. There’s also the financial issue of plummeting oil prices that may be playing a role.

For more information, visit climate-action-coalition.org and www.greenpeace.org.