‘For health’s sake- Just Stop Oil!’- Health professionals paint replicated dinosaur, demanding an end to new oil and gas

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Health Professionals associated with Just Stop Oil protests at the Natural History Museum 26 Oct 2023.
Health Professionals associated with Just Stop Oil protests at the Natural History Museum 26 Oct 2023.

Two senior medical professionals have painted a dinosaur at the Natural History Museum in London. They are demanding the government halt all new oil and gas projects in the UK and are calling on health professionals and the public to march in London from the 30th October to campaign for this.

This afternoon Will Stableforth, a consultant gastroenterologist and Steve Fay, a senior physiotherapist, used a children’s powder-paint fountain to cover a reproduction Titanosaur skeleton in orange cornstarch. The two then displayed a banner which read ‘For health’s sake- Just Stop Oil.’ The two then sat and waited for police to arrive. Fifteen officers have attended the scene and arrested both men.

Speaking before the action, Will Stableforth from Truro, in Cornwall, said

“As an NHS medical consultant I’ve spent many years looking after patients with diseases which, at their root, are caused by fossil fuels. I have done everything legal I can to get our message across. Most of that has been ineffective; so it’s time to break the law. I cannot see another way at this time.”

“The climate crisis is a healthcare emergency for every single one of us. We demand an end to any new fossil fuels and immediate climate action prioritising public health rather than big business.”

This morning, over 200 health journals from around the world, have urged the World Health Organization to declare the deadly climate and nature crises as a global health emergency. The journals have come together to simultaneously publish an editorial calling on world leaders and health professionals to treat the climate and and nature crises as one indivisible crisis that must be tackled together in order to preserve health and avoid catastrophe.

Just Stop Oil

Continue Reading‘For health’s sake- Just Stop Oil!’- Health professionals paint replicated dinosaur, demanding an end to new oil and gas

Just Stop Oil deliver an Open Letter to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley

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Just Stop Oil delivers an open letter to the Metropolitan Police urging them to prosecute politician climate criminals and to investigate others. Image: Just Stop Oil assumed.
Just Stop Oil delivers an open letter to the Metropolitan Police urging them to prosecute politician climate criminals and to investigate others. Image: Just Stop Oil assumed.

Climate activist group Just Stop Oil have delivered an open letter to the Metropolitan Police calling for the prosecution of politician climate criminals.

info@juststopoil.org
26th October 2023

Dear Sir Mark Rowley,

Just Stop Oil supporters will remain in civil resistance until you prosecute the criminals responsible for crimes against humanity and acts of genocide

The facts are clear. New oil and gas licensing in 2023 will kill hundreds of millions of people, adding to the already mounting global death toll from climate breakdown. It will push our climate, oceans and the living world beyond the point of no return, triggering runaway global heating and setting in motion an unstoppable process of global societal collapse. To know these facts and still encourage drilling for UK new oil and gas is reckless and immoral. There can be no greater crime. 

Of course, the politicians planning to max out the UK’s oil and gas reserves are not directly seeking mass death, neither are those executives signing off on plans to drill for new oil and gas or finance and insure new oil exploration. The primary aim of their support for fossil fuels is profit and power. To them, it’s an inconvenient side effect that millions and eventually billions of people will die when carbon emissions from new oil and gas cause heat waves, drought and crop failure.

But under International Criminal Law, this is no mere side effect: it is murder by oblique intent. Under Article 30 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, death or harm doesn’t have to be a primary intention for someone to be held criminally responsible. They simply have to be ‘aware that it will occur in the ordinary course of events’.

Since 2021 when the International Energy Agency (“IEA”) declared that there could be no new oil, gas or coal if we want an even chance of limiting global temperature rise in line with the Paris Agreement, it has been abundantly clear that new oil and gas will lead to mass death. 

In 2022 you received a dossier of evidence requesting you investigate and charge five top British politicians for crimes against humanity and genocide. You have declined to do so.

We say to you now that you already have all the evidence you need to prosecute those politicians and to launch an investigation into those executives signing off on plans to drill for new oil and gas or to finance and insure new oil exploration. If you are uncertain who they are, Just Stop Oil will be publishing a list on Sunday 29th October to assist in your enquiries.

Failure to act will force Just Stop Oil into full non-compliance with the police and judicial system and we will remain in civil resistance until such time as you launch an investigation and bring charges.  

As Metropolitan Police Commissioner you promised to police “without favour or prejudice”. We are asking you now to uphold your oath and uphold the law: it is a matter of life and death.

Respectfully yours,

Just Stop Oil

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil deliver an Open Letter to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley

Just Stop Oil supporters paint the Wellington Arch to demand an end to new oil and gas.

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JSO Wellington Arch action 25 Oct 23. Image Denise Laura Baker.
JSO Wellington Arch action 25 Oct 23. Image Denise Laura Baker.

Three Just Stop Oil supporters have painted the Wellington Arch near Hyde Park Corner to demand the UK government immediately halt all new oil and gas projects and to call on the public to march in London from 29th October.

At approximately 10:15 this morning, three Just Stop Oil supporters set off smoke flares and sprayed orange paint on the Wellington Arch, using fire extinguishers. They then displayed banners reading ‘Just Stop Oil’ and waited for police to arrive and arrest them.

One of those taking action this morning is Joshua Lane, 26, an engineer from Sheffield. He said:

“I am compelled to take action due to the severity, and sheer emergency we find ourselves in today. Future generations live in uncertainty, and we are given false promises time after time by endless pantomime governments. Humanity faces the biggest crisis in history, and yet the government continuously ignores the facts, and only thinks of themselves and the billionaire oil barons they serve. One thing that cannot be ignored is the power of ordinary people, and our voices are only continuing to grow louder.”

Also taking action today was Joe Hogan, 40, from Hertfordshire. He said:

“We are out of time; we have to act now. Not tomorrow, not next year, not 2050; NOW. But our government continues with business-as-usual, burning our futures to enrich their friends, while enacting draconian legislation to stamp out dissent. I refuse to be cowed. Traditional, managed, sanitised forms of protest have done nothing; the only way forward is through sustained, disruptive civil resistance. That’s why I will be marching in London from the 29th October and you should too. Sign up at juststopoil.org

JSO at Wellington Arch 25 Oct 23. Image Denise Laura Baker
JSO at Wellington Arch 25 Oct 23. Image Denise Laura Baker

Today’s action comes as extreme weather continues to disrupt the UK, killing at least seven and leaving hundreds homeless after around 1,250 properties have flooded in England. The environment agency has issued more than 300 flood alerts and a new wave of heavy rain could bring flooding and disruption to much of London and southern England according to a fresh Met Office weather warning. 

Just Stop Oil are calling for people to join them at https://juststopoil.org/take-action/

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil supporters paint the Wellington Arch to demand an end to new oil and gas.

Three Just Stop Oil activists found guilty of aggravated trespass after Lord’s protest

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/three-just-stop-oil-activists-found-guilty-aggravated-trespass-after-lords-protest

Ben Stokes (centre) grabs a JSO protestor while Johnny Bairstow carries another off the field

THREE climate change protesters who were found guilty of aggravated trespass after they ran on to the pitch during the Ashes series at Lord’s have been sentenced.

The Just Stop Oil protest carried out by Judit Murray, 69, Daniel Knorr, 21, and Jacob Bourne, 27, stopped play during the second Test between England and Australia on June 28, as security and ground staff cleaned up orange powder that was thrown on the pitch and ensured the ground was not damaged.

The three, who said they wanted to create headlines for their climate change protest and did not want to cause disruption or damage the pitch, were found guilty after a trial at City of London Magistrates’ Court.

England player Jonny Bairstow carried Knorr off the pitch, champagne corks and fruit were thrown by cricket fans at Bourne as he was led off the field, and Murray was tackled before she could reach the wicket and held down on the grass.

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/three-just-stop-oil-activists-found-guilty-aggravated-trespass-after-lords-protest

Continue ReadingThree Just Stop Oil activists found guilty of aggravated trespass after Lord’s protest

Climate destruction

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This post is subject to change.

Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.
Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.

Many people will tell you that we have already reached the 1.5C ‘limit’ or target of increased temperature over the pre-industrial era. This is not strictly true because the target is an average. It will be passed imminently probably within a year or two but currently we are passing it on about 30% of days. Weather records are getting surpassed daily and monthly – the climate is in freefall.

Capitalists caused the climate crisis and are unwilling to tackle it. Instead of tackling it they are ramping up fossil fuel dependecy that will accelerate climate destruction. In UK, the Blue Labour Party’s policy is indistinguishable from the Conservative climate destroyers. We have to reject the Neo-Liberal Capitalists responsible for climate destruction and Keir Starmer is every bit engaging in anilingus with the fossil fuel industry as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil's You May Find Yourself... art auction. Featuring Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch.
Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil’s You May Find Yourself… art auction. Featuring Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch.

I expect these Neo-Liberal Capitalist shits to be deposed, the problem is how quickly, how much damage will they do before then? People will come to realise that their knee-jerk reaction of hostility to Just Stop Oil is mistaken and that they are instead their saviours. How angry are they going to be then? Individual acts targeting superyachts, private planes and excessively expensive cars are happening now. What’s going to be happening in 5 or 6 years time? It is the rich that are responsible for destroying our planet and I expect them to be held to account when many people start realising that their own and their childrens’ lives are fekked.

28 Oct 23:

Another reason that we need a new politics, that we have to ensure that neither Conservative or Starmer’s Labour are in power is that supporters of war crimes in Gaza should be prevented from being in positions of authority. They should properly be prosecuted for their complicity.

30 Oct 23:

https://news.mit.edu/2023/explained-climate-benchmark-rising-temperatures-0827

How close are we to 1.5 C?

In 2022, the average global temperature was about 1.15 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the cyclical weather phenomenon La Niña recently contributed to temporarily cooling and dampening the effects of human-induced climate change. La Niña lasted for three years and ended around March of 2023.

In May, the WMO issued a report that projected a significant likelihood (66 percent) that the world would exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold in the next four years. This breach would likely be driven by human-induced climate change, combined with a warming El Niño — a cyclical weather phenomenon that temporarily heats up ocean regions and pushes global temperatures higher.

This summer, an El Niño is currently underway, and the event typically raises global temperatures in the year after it sets in, which in this case would be in 2024. The WMO predicts that, for each of the next four years, the global average temperature is likely to swing between 1.1 and 1.8 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

Though there is a good chance the world will get hotter than the 1.5-degree limit as the result of El Niño, the breach would be temporary, and for now, would not have failed the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global temperatures below the 1.5-degree limit over the long term (averaged over several decades rather than a single year).

Pre-COP28 discussions have started with Cop28 President-designate and United Arab Emirates Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr Sultan Al Jaber calling for further keeping to the 1.5-degree-C target. (e.g. see https://www.thenationalnews.com/climate/cop28/2023/10/30/dr-sultan-al-jaber-calls-for-world-to-unite-as-pre-cop28-talks-begin/)

The problem is that US and UK amoung others have shat on disregarded that target by progressing with further coal, gas and oil extraction. President Biden is continuing new oil and gas exploration, UK’s Rishi Sunak has permitted the huge Rosebank Oil field near Shetland and continues to hugely expand oil and gas exploitation and exploration.

Continue ReadingClimate destruction