On Sunday afternoon a group of ordinary people, Just Stop Oil supporters, stopped and climbed on top of two oil tankers, and succeeded in forcing two major oil terminals in Warwickshire to cease operations. Further south, a group of young people accessed the Inter Terminal in Essex bringing production to a halt. These were the latest in a series of ongoing, nonviolent but disruptive actions at oil facilities around the country over the past 10 days.[1]
This morning, there remain up to 12 people still locked onto pipework in the Inter Terminal and a number of people still occupying a tunnel under a major access route to the Kingsbury Oil terminal in Warwickshire, 40 hours after it was first excavated.
Over 400 people have joined actions that have succeeded in stopping operations for up to 24 hours at a time at 11 critical oil terminals that supply fuel to hundreds of petrol stations across the Midlands and South of England. As many as one in three petrol stations are being reported as shut in the South of England due to the disruption caused by the actions. [2]
This is miserable, and our hearts go out to all those who are disrupted. No-one wants to be doing this, but it’s 2022 and right now there is a need to break the law so we are not guilty of greater crime, that of complicity with a great evil. We have no choice but to enter into civil resistance until the government announces an end to new oil and gas projects in the UK.
The government knows that if we continue down the path of extracting and burning every last drop of oil, it will destroy families, communities, nations. It means the loss of every pension, every school, our food, law and order. It’s going to impact everyone and everything you love. We will face the starvation and the slaughter of billions – and the utter betrayal of our children and their future.
Climate collapse means we must wean ourselves off all oil and gas, including that extracted in the UK without delay. The government knows that investment in new fossil fuel supply projects jeopardises the future of humanity, but encourages it anyway. “Just one more fix to help us transition”, we’ve been fed this line for decades and it’s a barefaced lie. The International Energy Agency knows it and so does the UN Secretary General Antonio Gutterres, he said as much in his speech last week. [3]
Today the Just Stop Oil coalition demands that the Government gets a grip, that they stop lying, that they stop recklessly destroying the future of life on earth and that they start by ending new oil and gas. There is no rational, human or moral justification to continue. The supporters of Just Stop Oil will continue to disrupt until the government makes a statement that it will end new oil and gas projects in the UK.
There aren’t endless five minutes to midnight, the Just Stop Oil Coalition is calling on all of those whose futures are being destroyed, who are facing poverty, and who are outraged at yet another betrayal to stand together in the only solidarity that matters anymore, the solidarity with life itself!
Join our daily zoom calls at 7pm. It’s 2022 and the time to stand by has passed.
ENDS
Press contact: 07762 987334
Email: [email protected]
High quality photos and video footage available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dgcuv5vJjzfdSrdpX6HJEaayoidc08xy?usp=sharing
Website: https://juststopoil.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustStopOil/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/JustStop_Oil
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-t4U1Azf8AOkCBJILSNBmw
Notes to Editors
[1] Locations
Just Stop Oil
- Inter Terminals UK Ltd, London Rd, Grays RM17 6YU
- Navigator terminals Thames, Oliver Rd, West Thurrock, Grays, RM20 3ED
- Buncefield Oil Depot, Hemel Hempstead HP2 7HZ
- Esso Petroleum Co Ltd, Wood Lane, Birmingham B24 8DN
- Kingsbury Oil Terminal, Tamworth, B78 2HA
- BP Oil Depot, Kingsbury, Tamworth B78 2EF
- Thames Oil Port, Stanford-le-hope, Essex
- Purfleet Fuels Terminal, London Road, Purfleet, Essex,RM19 1RS
Extinction Rebellion
- Esso West Terminal near Heathrow Airport
- Hamble Terminals in Southampton.
- Hythe Terminal, Fawley
[3] “If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal, from now – from this year.” Fatih Birol, IEA
Secretary-General Warns of Climate Emergency, Calling Intergovernmental Panel’s Report ‘a File of Shame’, While Saying Leaders ‘Are Lying’, Fuelling Flames
