If Not You, Who? with Chris Packham
Chris Packham speaks well in the first vid but it’s quite long at 48 minutes, second one is only 2 minutes.
Just Stop Oil youth campaigners deliver ultimatum to Rishi Sunak
Two young supporters of Just Stop Oil, a one year old campaign demanding that the government stops granting licences for new fossil fuel projects, delivered an ultimatum letter to 10 Downing Street this morning.
Hannah Hunt, 23, from Brighton announcing the delivery of the letter, made a brief speech to assembled reporters. She said:
“A year on from delivering Just Stop Oil’s Saint Valentine’s Day letter, along with hundreds of others, I face multiple trials and the loss of my freedom because we refused to stand by while our government planned the destruction of everything we love.
“We may not succeed, and we may yet bequeath a poisoned bleak inheritance – but I make this promise to those I love: for the government to win, it will have to defeat the youth of this country for we will put our bodies on the line.
“Now I am asking you to pick a side, to join me, to stand with those future generations and with all the ordinary people willing to sacrifice their freedom to protect our future. We must stop the harm that is new oil and gas.”
Phoebe Plummer, 21, from London read out the contents of the letter to the Prime Minister. It points out that according to the International Energy Agency in order to have an even chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement, there can be no new investments in fossil fuel supply projects. [3] She said:
“One year ago our letter stressed that the government, of which you were a part, knew that breaching 1.5˚C could be the death sentence for our children and for whole countries and regions of the world.
“Since then, we have been warned by the United Nations that not only will we hurtle over 1.5˚C but also that there is “no credible pathway to 1.5˚C in place”.
“Accelerating the granting of North Sea oil and gas licences … is to knowingly plan for the death of countless millions, for the loss of entire nation states. It is an act of genocide, for which you will be held accountable.”
She went on to deliver the following ultimatum:
“Just Stop Oil is demanding that: The UK government makes a statement that it will immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.
“If you do not provide such assurance by 10th April 2023, we will be forced to escalate our campaign – to prevent the ultimate crime against our country, humanity and life on earth..”
Climate Change Heroes Of 2022: António Guterres, Just Stop Oil, Greta Thunberg And Climate Scientists
An interesting long article reviews and discusses climate activism 2022 and looks forward to 2023.
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On New Year’s Day, Extinction Rebellion caused a stir by tweeting, “WE QUIT! Our New Year’s Resolution is to halt our tactics of public disruption. Instead, we call on everyone to help us disrupt our corrupt government.”
“Choose Your Future & join us”, they added, providing a date and a location: 21 April, Parliament. The aim — the idea of the velvet revolution — is to get 100,000 people to commit to turning at Parliament on April 21, and also to commit to not going home again at the end of the day.
Please give this date some serious thought and ask yourself, if you already find yourself making excuses not to turn up, why it’s not worth doing. The presence of 100,000 people could genuinely be a tipping point — a gathering too large for the government to suppress via the vile anti-protest legislation passed by the former home secretary Priti Patel, and which the current home secretary, Suella Braverman, wants to expand, which criminalises protest, and equates disruption to save the planet with terrorism.
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My day with Just Stop Oil
I travelled to London on Monday to protest with Just Stop Oil (JSO). It was supposed to be the last day of their month of October actions and so it was my last opportunity to participate and show solidarity with them. I didn’t know at the time that JSO activists had targeted MI5, Bank of England and News Corp that day. They then had a 32nd day of action on the first of November that targeted Downing Street. I had wanted to join them from the start of October but simply wasn’t able to for weeks because of commitments involving an elderly person needing support.
I arrived at about 11.30, half an hour later than JSO’s meeting time. I was very pleased to find them near the Department of Defence opposite Downing Street. I was worried that I might not find them and would be wasting hours wandering around London until I could catch my booked coach back.
There were about 35 of us from all over the UK. Ages were from late teens and I would say about 70% like me fifty or over, some able to be there because they were retired and still fit. There were about three wearing Christian dog-collars. I recognised one from an image of him used on this blog before.
I’m going to end this quickly because I’m suffering from a temporary health condition (Baker’s cysts) that causes a lot of pain. My reasoning is affected because of the pain and the painkillers that I’m taking.
JSO activists have no choice but to cause disruption. The climate crisis is a huge, real and immediate crisis.
JSO are very concerned with the safety of their participants. Marches are stewarded very well.
There is a choice to get arrested or not. JSO know the boundaries, how far they can push it until they are arrested. I was marching in the area around Parliament. Although there were arrests, those arrested were willing to be arrested.
Leafleting for JSO is challenging because you meet people who have a go at you.
JSO were not keen on letting me have the megaphone because they didn’t know me and didn’t know what I was going to say in the presence of many police officers.
There is a policy of getting out of the way of emergency vehicles despite what Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and others claim.
The painting is undamaged because it was behind glass.
ed: Just Stop Oil’s demand is no NEW oil or gas.