Written in the shadow of the worsening, potentially existential, climate crisis and accompanying government inaction, professor Dana R Fisher makes two central arguments in Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action.
First, while many people believe the shocking, disruptive civil disobedience carried out by groups such as Just Stop Oil (JSO) is detrimental to their cause and to the wider climate movement, Fisher argues that ‘the evidence to date does not support this…
Since our last issue, Just Stop Oil has racked up five acquittals and seven convictions – and also claimed victory in their campaign to get the government to stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects. That is the policy of the new Labour government. Extinction Rebellion have a new prisoner, Amy Pritchard, as well as big plans for the end of August.
There seems to have been a large-scale pre-emptive police swoop, detaining 27 JSO activists on 28 June, as well as three high-…
As we go to press, we’re in the middle of a Youth Demand week of action, which they started by blocking the roads around Marble Arch in Central London on 13 July. This followed four eye-catching actions in June.
Youth Demand (YD) is a cross between Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil, calling for ‘an immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel and an end to all new oil and gas licences in the UK.’
YD says: ‘Until these demands are met, we will be in nonviolent resistance against…
On 28 June, the Science Museum in London announced it had dropped one of its sponsors, Equinor, because the Norwegian oil and gas firm’s plans did not meet the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C.
Culture Unstained, which has campaigned against fossil fuel sponsorship of the Science Museum, pointed out that the Equinor announcement was buried at the bottom of a blog post released just days before the UK general election.
The museum is now facing…
On 20 June, the supreme court in London set a powerful precedent affecting all future fossil fuel projects in the UK: it quashed Surrey county council’s decision to grant planning permission for 20 years of oil drilling at Horse Hill in Surrey, England.
The court ruled that the council had breached environmental law because it had not taken into consideration the greenhouse gas emissions that would come from burning the oil (probably for transport).
Up till now, only the carbon…
On 21 June, Fossil Free London dropped this large banner across a tower at Bodiam Castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, demanding that the National Trust, which owns Bodiam Castle, stop banking with Barclays, Europe’s biggest fossil-fuel funder since 2016. One of the National Trust’s core aims is to protect nature and climate.
On 9 July, climate activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) climbed on the roof of the county hall in Lewes to hold a banner saying: ‘ESCC: Which side are you on? Fossil fuels or climate action?’
On the ground, in front of the building, was a colourful and noisy Divest East Sussex (DES) protest featuring an ‘oil monster’ and a giant pair of cardboard scissors.
XR South East and DES, who had co-ordinated their actions, called on East Sussex county council (ESCC) to cut its ties…
On 1 June, the British Museum in Central London was visited by a coalition of Palestine and climate activists who built a large protest mosaic in the Great Court (see above) and offered teach-outs, alternative walking tours and children’s activities. BP or not BP, Energy Embargo for Palestine and Parents for Palestine called on the museum to drop sponsorship by the oil giant BP because of its involvement in global heating and in supplying the oil sustaining the current assault on Gaza. Last…
Most climate direct action recently seems to have been carried out by Just Stop Oil (JSO), and most of the court cases also involve them, including three acquittals and a professional suspension. Here is some of what’s been happening.
On 15 May, three JSO activists were convicted under the Section 7 of the new Public Order Act 2023, which bans interference with ‘key national infrastructure’, including roads.
Daniel Hall, Phoebe Plummer and Chiara Sarti had marched along a…
Why is it legal to advertise products that are driving us and the planet to destruction? Why should advertisers be able to tempt us to buy an SUV [an oversized car – ed] as if it were no more damaging to the environment than a bicycle? And what can we do about it?
All these questions and more are tackled in Badvertising.
We are surrounded by advertising: online, on TV, in the street, on public transport, and – more insidiously – through sponsorship, whether it’s BP…
Success in climate activism can take a lot of forms, and relatively few of them are glamorous. The change we work for might be too abstract to measure, or our role in it might be unclear. Perhaps, in difficult conditions, success might mean no more than keeping your head above the water.
Still, there are times when success can actually be joyful, epic and infectious, as in the case of the recent blockades on the Dutch capital’s A12 highway.
The shortest version of this story is…
On 5 December, Culture Unstained put a formal 34-page complaint to the board of trustees of London’s Science Museum. The climate action group called for director Ian Blatchford to be investigated for his role in pushing through a sponsorship deal in 2021 with a major coal-producing conglomerate Adani.
‘Adani Green Energy’ is sponsoring a climate gallery.
Culture Unstained also called for the museum to cut ties with Adani, because the process that led to the sponsorship deal ‘…
On 17 November, Global Justice Now handed in a 120,000-strong petition to Number 10 Downing Street, demanding the UK leave the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).
The treaty allows foreign fossil fuel companies to sue governments for taking climate action – using corporate courts outside their national legal systems. Firms can get massive payoffs or pressure governments to back down.
A Jersey-based oil-refining company is suing the EU, Germany and Denmark under the ECT for at least €…
The government’s climate strategy for aviation will not work, but it is possible for the UK to stay on track for carbon reductions. That’s the conclusion of experts at Chatham House, the highly respected thinktank, who were commissioned to study the topic by the very wonderful climate action group Possible.
According to the report, if no one took more than one return flight a year, that would bring the aviation sector onto a trajectory that’s safe for the climate. That would mean…
On 17 October, Shell CEO Wael Sawan was unable to get into a major oil and gas conference in London because activists were blockading the luxury hotel hosting the event. Sawan was forced to deliver his keynote speech online instead. We shut the Oil & Money summit down!
This was the result of Fossil Free London’s biggest mobilisation to date: ‘Oily Money Out.’ As the biggest names in the fossil fuel industry, banking and politics gathered for the exclusive Oil & Money summit (…
