Climate Emergency

Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion’s oil terminal protests

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News articles about the protests at oil terminals that started today.

Inside Just Stop Oil, the youth climate group blocking UK refineries

A band of 20-year-olds have made headlines disrupting football games, the Baftas and now oil facilities across the UK. But what do they want?

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At a recruitment meeting last Thursday in Camden, north London, Larch Maxey, a veteran eco-campaigner, said the aim was “to build a community of civil resistance in response to the climate change science”.

“In 2022 you have got tens of thousands of peer-reviewed papers spelling out the climate science,” he said. Authorities such as David Attenborough and David King, the former government chief science officer, were in agreement, he said: there is a narrow window of two to three years in which to act. “We are facing the end of civilisation if we do not act on the climate emergency. We are heading towards societal collapse.

“When your house is on fire, you stop pouring petrol on the flames,” he said. “That’s basically the demand – no new licences. We are in a crisis. Let’s stop digging out new oil and gas.”

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The key shift in Just Stop Oil is what its supporters say is a move from civil disobedience and into civil resistance. What that means, as Jess Causby, 25, a supporter of the campaign, told the Guardian last month, “is stopping pointing out what the government should or shouldn’t be doing [and instead] actively stopping government doing what they shouldn’t be.”

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END FOSSIL FUELS NOW: Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil block oil facilities across the UK

April 01, 2022 by Extinction Rebellion

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The government is making a choice to continue its addiction to fossil fuels as war wages in Ukraine, instead of accelerating the transition to a renewable led future. They could choose not to. Just a few months on from the “last chance” of COP26, Boris Johnson now claims the current crisis demands a “climate change pass”.[6] The Prime Minister says he wants to “remove barriers” to increased extraction of fossil fuels from the North Sea and has now gone begging Saudi Arabia to increase its oil supply.[7][8] The UK is also set to approve licenses for 40 new fossil fuel projects.[9]

The recent IPCC report tells us in no uncertain terms that the window is closing on adaptation, let alone mitigation.[10] The Environment Agency put it bluntly in its October 2021 report: Adapt or Die.[11] Breakdown is happening in a way that isn’t allowing time for adaptation. According to the UN Secretary General, staying on fossil fuels will cause an atlas of human suffering and ‘delay means death’.[12][13]

All of this is taking place despite recent polling showing that the UK public wants climate action now in face of the energy crisis.[14] As fossil fuel multinationals use the war in Ukraine to lobby for new extraction, they are also getting huge tax breaks, while its expected that 1 in 4 people in the UK will not be able to pay their bills by September.[15][16] 

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[6] https://www.netzerowatch.com/boris-johnsons-climate-change-pass-for-natural-gas-welcomed/

[7] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/energy-oil-gas-ukraine-boris-johnson-b2035408.html

[8] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-saudi-oil-executions-b2037442.html

[9] https://neweconomics.org/2021/10/40-new-uk-fossil-fuel-projects-emitting-triple-the-uks-annual-emissions-could-be-approved-by-2025

[10] IPCC key takeaways: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/key-takeaways-ipcc-report-climate-impacts-adaptation-2022-02-28/

[11] https://www.cityam.com/adapt-or-die-warns-uk-environment-agency-as-iea-cautions-worlds-coal-reliance/

[12] https://www.politico.eu/article/landmark-climate-report-details-an-atlas-of-human-suffering/

[13] https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/delay-means-death-un-climate-report-urges-immediate-drastic-action-2022-02-28/

Just Stop Oil protests: Terminal operations suspended and arrests made

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Extinction Rebellion spokesman Andy Smith said the group had “held” three locations of strategic importance to the UK’s energy network:

  • Esso West, near Heathrow Airport
  • Esso Hythe, Southampton
  • BP Hamble, also Southampton

Campaigners from the Just Stop Oil group say they are protesting at seven other sites:

  • Inter Terminals UK, Grays, Essex
  • Navigator Terminals Thames, Grays, Essex
  • Buncefield Oil Depot, Hemel Hempstead
  • Esso Birmingham
  • Purfleet Fuels Terminal, Essex
  • Kingsbury Oil Terminal, Warwickshire
  • BP Depot, Tamworth

Operations had been halted at Hythe, Birmingham, Purfleet and West London terminals, said ExxonMobil.

The company said its terminal at Avonmouth, Bristol, was not affected by the demonstrations.

It apologised for any inconvenience.

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and from the right-wing bigots …

Patrick Christys: Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil are domestic terrorists who need locking up

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And yet here we are. These environmental bandits are at it again.

Hundreds of eco activists from Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil have blocked ten major oil terminals across England in a mass protest amid demands that the Government stops new oil and gas projects.

They’re blocking oil tankers from leaving the sites, which, if it continues, would only serve to push up the price of oil more.

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Some bloke who’s never worked a day in his life, doesn’t care about money because he wants us all to live in a vegan hippy commune using moss for mattresses is making the cost of living crisis even worse.

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These eco bandits are a menace.

Conservative MP for South Thanet Craig Mackinlay calls for renewable sources of energy to be abandoned!

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion’s oil terminal protests

NOW: Oil protest: Arrests made as Exxon Mobil suspends operations

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Oil protest: Arrests made as Exxon Mobil suspends operations

Six people have been arrested after a campaign group targeted fuel terminals in a protest against oil.

The arrests were made at three sites in Thurrock, Essex Police said.

Oil company Exxon Mobil has temporarily suspended operations at three other terminals due to a series of co-ordinated “small protests”.

Campaign group Just Stop Oil said it had blocked 10 “critical” sites including in Birmingham, Hemel Hempstead and Hythe in Kent.

Operations from these locations had been halted, Exxon Mobil said.

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Just Stop Oil said in a statement: “The Just Stop Oil coalition is demanding an end to the government’s genocidal policy of expanding UK oil and gas production and is calling on all those outraged at the prospect of climate collapse and suffering from the cost-of-living crisis to stand with us.

“Ordinary people can no longer afford oil and gas, it’s time to just stop oil.”

Continue ReadingNOW: Oil protest: Arrests made as Exxon Mobil suspends operations

Climate news review

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A few of today’s climate news stories

Insulate Britain says 117 supporters have been charged over road block protests after 857 arrests

Climate activists say they expect numbers to rise

Climate group Insulate Britain has said 117 activists have been charged over road-blocking protests last year.

Activists brought major roads – mostly in southern England – to a standstill during protests between September and November, which were aimed at drawing attention to the UK’s poorly heated homes.

The Metropolitan Police, Kent Police and Essex Police have each issued charges in recent weeks.

They include 146 charges of causing a public nuisance, 137 of wilful obstruction of the highway, and 10 of criminal damage.

Insulate Britain said it is “likely these numbers will rise as we understand that further charges are still being issued”.

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Greta Thunberg to publish a ‘go-to source’ book on the climate crisis

The Climate Book will include contributions from scientist Katharine Hayhoe, economist Thomas Piketty and novelist Margaret Atwood

Greta Thunberg is releasing a new book this autumn, which aims to offer a “global overview of how the planet’s many crises connect”.

“I have decided to use my platform to create a book based on the current best available science – a book that covers the climate, ecological and sustainability crises holistically”, Thunberg said in a statement. “Because the climate crisis is, of course, only a symptom of a much larger sustainability crisis. My hope is that this book might be some kind of go-to source for understanding these different, closely interconnected crises.”

In The Climate Book, which is due to be published by Penguin this autumn, Thunberg has assembled more than 100 contributors, from scientists Johan Rockström and Katharine Hayhoe to economist Thomas Piketty and novelist Margaret Atwood. The 19-year-old also shares what she has learned from her own experiences of climate activism. In particular, she discusses the prevalence of greenwashing, revealing the extent to which we have been kept in the dark about the issue. She names this as one of our biggest problems, but also our greatest source of hope – because, she believes, once we are all given the full picture, we will be able to act.

“Right now, we are in desperate need of hope”, Thunberg said. “But hope is not about pretending that everything will be fine.”

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France fails to meet court deadline to get Paris climate deal objectives back on track 

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In a landmark ruling back in July 2021, France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, condemned the government’s failure to comply with the 2015 accord and tackle climate change.

After a review, it concluded that the country was not doing enough to reach the agreement’s objective of reducing global greenhouse gases by 40% by 2030 compared to 1990.

The court gave the government nine months to “take all useful measures” to get the country back on track.

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UK parliament hunger strike ‘out of desperation’, climate activist says

A climate activist who has been on hunger strike outside the UK Houses of Parliament for three weeks has said his protest was an “utter necessity” even though it was putting his life at risk.

Angus Rose, a 52-year-old software engineer, tells The Independent he would rather be doing something else – such as hanging out with friends – than sat outside Westminster refusing to eat any food.

But he says: “This is out of desperation.”

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Continue ReadingClimate news review

Climate protests news review

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Climate [ed: strikes] were worldwide on Friday.

https://insideclimatenews.org/todaysclimate/the-return-of-the-youth-climate-strike/

https://fridaysforfuture.org/march19/

FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE…

or FFF, is a youth-led and -organised global climate strike movement that started in August 2018, when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg began a school strike for climate. In the three weeks leading up to the Swedish election, she sat outside Swedish Parliament every school day, demanding urgent action on the climate crisis. She was tired of society’s unwillingness to see the climate crisis for what it is: a crisis.

To begin with, she was alone, but she was soon joined by others. On the 8th of September, Greta and her fellow school strikers decided to continue their strike until the Swedish policies provided a safe pathway well under 2° C, i.e. in line with the Paris agreement. They created the hashtag #FridaysForFuture, and encouraged other young people all over the world to join them. This marked the beginning of the global school strike for climate.

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Young people on first climate strikes since COP26

Young people in Scotland are taking part in climate strikes from schools, colleges and universities for the first time since COP26.

They are calling for faster action on climate change as they believe little has been done since the global summit.

The demonstrations are part of more than 700 similar protests taking place around the world.

Hundreds gathered outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh before marching to the city chambers.

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Australia has seen protests by Blockade Australia blockading infrastructure before Friday – Sydney’s Port Botany, roads and railways in Sydney – as well as climate strikers.

Activists dismiss NSW government crackdown on Sydney port protests

State government announces strike force and penalties, while two German nationals will be deported

Climate change protesters who have caused blockades at Sydney’s major port this week say tougher penalties and the deportation of two activists will not stop them from continuing their campaign.

The New South Wales government announced on Thursday that it would ramp up its response to protests by the climate group Blockade Australia, including the creation of a strike force aimed at disrupting activists, increased penalties and possible jail time.

The penalties, including fines of $22,000 and up to two years jail time for people who blockade tunnels and bridges, follow three days of protests around the port which have seen the arrests of five people including two German nationals.

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Senior ex-ADF officers name climate change as Australia’s biggest threat

A roll call of senior ex-Defence officers and security experts have put their names to an open letter naming climate change “the greatest threat to the future and security of Australians”.

The letter, published on the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group website, called on political leaders to make climate change a primary focus ahead of the 2022 Federal Election.

“The first duty of government is the safety and protection of the people, but Australia has failed when it comes to climate change threats,” the letter read.

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Climate protest shuts down Port Botany for third time in a day after man climbs crane

Climate activist group Blockade Australia shut down operations at Port Botany three times on Friday, marking its fourth consecutive day of climate inaction protests in Sydney.

Around 2pm, a 26-year-old, identified by the activist group as Max, gained access to the port in less than 10 minutes and began scaling a 60-metre crane, tying himself to the main arm of its top while live-streaming the incident on Facebook.

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Earlier on Friday, a grandmother aged in her 60s, who identified herself as Sharon, climbed on top of a cargo train in Sydney’s inner west as part of the same climate change protest. She was arrested and taken to Mascot police station where she is expected to be charged.

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Another woman staged a protest in Tempe, identifying herself as Emma on her Facebook stream. She was arrested after she suspended herself from a bipod structure on a freight line.

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Australian school students join global climate protest

Scott Morrison reminds students skipping school for climate protests that ‘learning gets done in schools’

Continue ReadingClimate protests news review