Just Stop Oil are commencing their thirteenth week of marching. They are demanding that the UK government halt any new licensing or consents for oil, gas and coal extraction in the UK. [1]
In an escalation of resistance from previous weeks, at 8am this morning around 180 Just Stop Oil supporters, in fourteen groups, began marching on key roads in central London. They marched in groups of between 5 and 25 supporters, carrying placards reading “new oil = murder”, “ hottest June ever” and “can’t eat oil”.
Police followed numerous groups before marches began and stopped and searched dozens of people. Police began issuing Public Order Act (Section 12) notices at 8:10am, just minutes after the first march set off. Three Just Stop Oil supporters were arrested after 15 minutes of marching on Liverpool Street. Around twenty Just Stop Oil supporters were arrested as they attempted to leave Lambeth bridge, however 11 of these were de-arrested. The team in Victoria was removed by 8:35. Police were seen following marchers on the tube at 9:00am. Another two were arrested on Liverpool Street at 9:45. At 10:30 two were arrested on Victoria Street. Further marches are ongoing.
Frances Davis, 20, from Norwich spoke to the camera as she was held in handcuffs:
“I’ve been marching for just under 15 minutes and I’m under arrest for demanding the same thing as the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the United Nations and the government’s own scientific advisors have been demanding- and we’ve just been ignored. We’ve tried everything else and now I’m in handcuffs, just for going on a march.”
One of those on the road this morning Louis Pilfold 32, an Engineer from Camden, said:
“I’m marching because our children deserve lives as good as ours have been. They have done nothing to deserve the hardship of climate breakdown. It’s important that we engage with the reality of our predicament- that continued dumping of carbon into the atmosphere has put us in the midst of a human-made extinction event. Scientists are warning that irreversible tipping points have already been triggered.”
“We have to face up to the fact that the quickly destabilising climate will result in chaos- as we are starting to see. We also have to realise our leaders have zero intention of resolving this crisis, due to criminal corruption amongst other factors. Our children need us to move quickly from despair into action, that is why I’m marching and you should be too.”
Another of those marching today, Anne Taylor, a retired teacher from Oxford said:
“I am an ordinary 74 year old grandmother to four amazing children, the youngest just 2 months old. Their future is so very bleak it just terrifies me to think about it. So I simply have to do whatever I can. That’s why I am marching today with Just Stop Oil. I hate to disrupt other people’s lives. But life simply cannot continue as usual. We are sounding the alarm. This is an emergency. It’s happening right now.”
“As a 74 year old retired teacher I’d rather be working on my allotment or in my garden. But I have to be here marching on the streets – because we are in a climate crisis- described by the Secretary General of the United Nations as ‘out of control’. I have four grandchildren. I am terrified for their future.”
This morning’s marches come as extreme heat continues to ravage Europe and now 110 million people have been issued extreme heat warnings in the US, as a heat dome over the US south-west has translated into coast to coast alerts. Temperature records could be broken in as many as 38 cities. In Las Vegas security guards can be seen guarding the fountains of upscale casinos and hotels to prevent people from jumping in, whilst mobile clinics are reporting treating homeless people suffering from third-degree burns.
A heat dome occurs when an area of high pressure pushes air towards the ground, compressing it and causing it to heat. The warmer air then rises again, setting up a cycle in which air sinks through the centre of the ‘dome’ and rises up its sides. The pressure also prevents other weather systems that would cool the area – such as rain clouds – from forming. [2]
Since the Just Stop Oil campaign launched on 14th February 2022, there have been over 2,200 arrests and 138 people have spent time in prison, many without trial. Just Stop Oil supporters Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker are serving three-year prison sentences for resisting new oil, gas and coal in the longest sentences for peaceful climate action in British history.
It’s time to get off the sidelines and join in civil resistance to end new oil, gas and coal. We are inviting everyone to come and march with us every day in London from the 16th-23rd July. Sign up for action at juststopoil.org.
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to demand that the government immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK. Just Stop Oil is a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects. Climate Emergency Fund is Just Stop Oil’s primary funder for recruitment, training, and capacity building.
Just Stop Oil ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been, to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with siren sounding and ‘blue lights’ on.
