Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaking on the Pyramid Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. Picture date: Saturday June 25, 2022.
INTERNATIONAL climate activist Greta Thunberg condemned the British government as “out of touch with reality” today as she joined protesters in London against the Rosebank oil field.
Campaigners gathered outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero against the proposed plans for the new site off the Shetland coast.
The plans were originally expected to get approved before parliamentary recess this month but have been delayed over climate concerns.
Ms Thunberg said that a decision by Energy Secretary Grant Shapps to approve oil and gas explorations at Britain’s largest site would be “deliberately destructive.”
The Swedish activist said: “How can the British government even consider pressing ahead with new drilling when we can see what the burning of fossil fuels is doing to the climate and to people?
“The extreme weather events being experienced around the world right now is just a taste of what’s to come if we don’t get off fossil fuels.”
Elise Joshi, executive director of Gen Z for Change, interrupted White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at an event on July 27, 2023 to demand climate action from the Biden administration. (Photo: screenshot/Gen Z for Change)
“Asking nicely hasn’t worked out,” said Elise Joshi as she stood up during the White House press secretary’s remarks.
Shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden angered climate campaigners by failing to mention fossil fuels in his remarks about new protections for millions of people facing extreme heat, the executive director of a youth-led advocacy group decided to address the administration directly about officials’ refusal to end support for the planet-heating oil and gas industry.
Elise Joshi, 21, stood up as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was addressing a crowd at an event hosted by the voter engagement group Voters of Tomorrow. The campaigner spoke about Gen Z for Change’s long-stated demand that Biden declare a climate emergency—a move that would unlock numerous resources to fight the climate crisis and expedite the shift away from oil and fossil gas.
“Excuse me for interrupting, but asking nicely hasn’t worked out,” said Joshi. “A million young people wrote to the administration pleading not to approve a disastrous oil drilling project in Alaska, and we were ignored. So I’m here channeling the strength of my ancestors and generation.”
I just mustered up every ounce of courage to interrupt White House Press Secretary @K_JeanPierre and urge the Biden Administration to stop approving new coal, oil, and gas projects.
An event staffer approached Joshi, but Jean-Pierre urged them to “let her talk,” allowing the campaigner to demand that Biden “stop approving new oil and gas projects and align with youth, science, and frontline communities.”
When Joshi was finished speaking Jean-Pierre acknowledged that she had brought up the Willow project, an oil drilling operation that was approved on public land in Alaska this year. The project is expected to produce more than 600 million barrels of crude oil over the next three decades—releasing about 280 million metric tons of heat-trapping carbon emissions.
Joshi also noted that the Biden administration has approved drilling projects at a faster rate than the Trump administration.
As other Gen Z for Change campaigners called on the White House to “declare a climate emergency,” Jean-Pierre defended Biden’s record by saying he has “taken more action on climate change than any other president,” and said she would speak to Joshi privately after the event.
“We can talk through all that he has done and all that he wants to do, and we can also listen to you,” said the press secretary.
The White House can show it is listening to young people, said the advocacy group Sunrise Movement, by declaring a climate emergency.
U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), who has also called for far-reaching climate action and at 26 is the youngest member of Congress, applauded Joshi for speaking out.
We are running out of time. We can’t afford to approve projects that will increase emissions. Every move should bring us to net zero. Our humanity depends on it. @EliseJoshi is a patriot. Fighting with the anger & love of a generation. That’s something to be proud of.
— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) July 28, 2023
“I join the movement in asking the president to declare a climate emergency,” said Frost.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)
“Every house burnt to the ground, every town forced to evacuate, every ecosystem lost to a wildfire is a necessary consequence of a business model like Shell’s.”
With much of the world reeling from record-shattering heat and devastating wildfires, the London-based oil giant Shell is poised to ramp up its investments in planet-warming fossil fuels after ditching its plan to cut oil production.
An analysis released Thursday by the rights group Global Witness estimates that Shell’s investments in oil and gas projects are set to surge to around $14.5 billion this year, a 10% increase over 2022. The company is expected to spend far less on what it defines as “renewables and energy solutions.”
“Fossil fuels are the number one cause of climate breakdown, which is stoking extreme heatwaves, forest fires, and drought,” said Jonathan Noronha-Gant, a senior campaigner at Global Witness. “Every house burnt to the ground, every town forced to evacuate, every ecosystem lost to a wildfire is a necessary consequence of a business model like Shell’s, which prioritizes short-term cash grabs over the safety and survivability of our societies.”
The new analysis came as Shell reported $5.1 billion in second-quarter profits, a major decline compared to the company’s record-setting $11.5 billion in profits during the same period last year. Despite the profit dip, which Shell blamed on falling oil and gas prices, the company announced a 15% quarterly dividend increase and $3 billion in stock buybacks.
“CEO Wael Sawan’s fossil fuel direction continues to be solely aimed at profit for shareholders,” Nine de Pater, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth Netherlands, said in a statement. “This is immoral and completely irresponsible. We are seeing the impact of the climate crisis around the world this summer: the wildfires in Greece and heat records in southern Europe, Algeria, and India, among others, and the floods in Italy and Afghanistan.”
“Shell’s profits clearly show that the company chooses profits over human lives,” she added.
Shell, which has known about the climate impacts of burning fossil fuels since the 1970s, announced last month that it intends to boost gas production in the coming years while abandoning its plan to reduce oil production by up to 2% per year.
In an interview weeks after the announcement, Sawan claimed it would be “dangerous and irresponsible” to curb oil and gas production even as scientists say that’s exactly what’s needed to avert catastrophic warming.
Global Witness recently estimated that Shell’s reversal on oil production could generate an average of “29 million tonnes of extra carbon per year, almost as much as Denmark emits annually.”
“By 2030,” the group added, “Shell’s extra estimated emissions would be as much as Spain—one of Europe’s largest polluters—produces in one year.”
The news is full of it: July set to be the warmest month on record meaning that temperatures are running away or as UN chief Antonio Guterres said the planet is entering an “era of global boiling”.
This is a result of Capitalism. Capitalists see nothing wrong with simply profiteering and disregarding the consequences of their actions: they’re more than happy to feck the planet and profit from it. That’s exactly how we’ve arrived here and – of course – why do you imagine that they’ll stop now? Capitalist scum like Lord Frost, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Grant Shapps and Michael Gove will tell you that trashing the planet is a price worth paying to fatten their and their friends’ wallets.
We need to snatch power from these planet-destroying Capitalist scum to have any meaningful climate action. It’s pointless voting Capitalist Conservative or the Red Capitalist Labour variety. We need to elect Greens and we need Greens to pull their fingers out ffs!
16.25: Suggest that we abandon the electoral democratic route if the Capitalists further attack our planet. It’s a plutocracy not a democracy after all – why should we respect or be held to democratic norms?
