Just Stop Oil supporters are continuing to disrupt roads in central London during their thirteenth week of continuous resistance against new oil, gas and coal. [1]
At 8am around 180 supporters in 15 groups marched on key roads across North, South and West London. Some members of the public were seen expressing support, whilst others allowed their frustration to get the better of them. Some people threw drinks at the marchers, a moped rider and a car driver steered their vehicles into people on the road and others shoved Just Stop Oil supporters out of the street.
Police arrested several Just Stop Oil supporters including one at Hangar Lane at 8:20 and one at Elephant and Castle at 8:24. Two further arrests occurred on Borough High Street at 10:35.
Starting from 10am, 15 more marches left causing further disruption. One pedestrian attacked marchers with a skateboard.
One of this morning’s marches is made up of a group of scientists. One of those on the road is Dr Susi Arnott, 65, a research biologist from London. She said:
“The science is in; fossil fuel use is killing our life support systems – but none of the people in power are taking climate breakdown seriously. Even the fossil fuel companies’ own research from decades ago is being ignored, as if you can stop it being true by hiding it in a drawer. I want them to stop lying to the public. I’ve tried teaching and writing about the crisis – I’ve asked my elected representatives to take climate collapse seriously.”
“So marching is a last gasp for me – but actually it feels more like taking a deep breath, to be standing up with fellow scientists, not sitting on the sidelines studying disaster as it unfolds. I’m a biologist because I’m entranced by life on Earth – by other species and how we all knit together. We’ve let global heating run on for so long that radical change is inevitable, one way or another. If we act now, human civilisation and the biosphere it depends on can survive this, but ‘business as usual’ is taking us all to hell.”
Another scientist marching today, Dr Tristram Wyatt, 66, Emeritus Fellow, Kellogg College, University of Oxford, said:
“I study animal behaviour, across the animal kingdom. So many species are going extinct, even as we study them. They are victims of the climate catastrophe, driven by burning fossil fuels.”
“The science is clear: we can have no new fossil fuel projects. We must just stop new oil, not give 100 more licences as this government is doing, against the advice of its own scientists and its own pledges.”
“There’s an unprecedented heatwave all over southern Europe, including places like Spain that export fruit and veg to us. The heatwave is killing the crops we all depend on. Food prices will rise.”
The marches today come as the government’s plan to cope with the climate crisis is being condemned as “very weak” by experts, who say not enough is being done to protect lives and livelihoods. The world is currently experiencing searing temperatures across three continents, however experts have highlighted the government’s failure to adequately protect people in the UK from extreme heat. The heatwave in 2022, when temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time, led to the early deaths of more than 3,000 people, wildfires, buckled rail lines and farmers struggling with drought. In March the government’s own Climate Change Committee described the government as “strikingly unprepared.”
“The new plan falls far short of being a strategy that will ensure the protection of lives and livelihoods against more frequent and intense floods, droughts and heatwaves,” said Bob Ward, policy director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. [2][3][4]
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.
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/17/new-uk-government-plan-to-protect-against-climate-heat-very-weak?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
[4]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/29/uk-strikingly-unprepared-impacts-climate-crisis
