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PROTESTORS FROM JUST Stop Oil, a climate action group whose members threw soup on one of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings last week, have stopped traffic at a key junction in London this morning.
At 10.50am, 22 activists walked into the road at the junction between High Holborn and Kingsway. They sat on the road with banners while some glued themselves to the tarmac.
Police confirmed an hour later that 16 protesters had been arrested and that the roads have since been reopened.
Just Stop Oil have demanded that the government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents.
One of the protesters, Patrick Walker, a 33-year-old council worker from Newport, said: “Up until very recently I really thought the government would eventually take action to save us from the worst of the climate crisis.
“Then the IPCC warned us last year that we had to stop new fossil fuel extraction if we wanted a liveable future, only for governments to completely ignore them.
“I realised then the government wouldn’t listen and I had to take action if I wanted a future for my family. I have no choice but to resist.”
Adam Beard, a 53-year-old gardener from Stroud, Gloucestershire, was also protesting.
He said: “I’m taking action with Just Stop Oil because I’ve had enough of government lies and inaction on the climate crisis, the biggest issue the world is currently facing.
“All over the world we can see the effects of the climate crisis, yet our government continues to back new fossil fuel extraction.
“For the sake of humanity and all life on earth, this has to stop. I hope that my actions in support of Just Stop Oil will inspire other ordinary people like me to step forward and take a stand against this government’s disastrous energy policies.”
A spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police said today: “Police have arrested 16 protesters for wilful obstruction of the highway at Kingsway/High Holborn.
“They have been taken into custody at a central London police station. All four junctions are now open.”
The roadblock follows more than two weeks of protests by Just Stop Oil, in which there have been 555 arrests.
Since their campaign began on 1 April, Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested over 1,800 times, with seven supporters currently in prison and 13 in police custody.
Two of the activists remanded are Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, two men who climbed a bridge on Monday morning and blocked off the Dartford Crossing for more than 36 hours.
Yesterday, Just Stop Oil protesters sprayed orange paint on the front of the Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London.
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They should leave them there, just put a couple of cones around them.
@John Smith: I’ve been saying to do this since the first time I heard of this ridiculous form of protest. Just leave them there and let people ridicule them. However childish they may be, they are adults!
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: Well, other forms of protest aren’t working. People seem to be absolutely oblivious to the consequences of the Climate Crisis – we’re not talking about hotter summers and some water shortages. We’re talking the end of civilisation and possibly the end of life on Planet Earth. This is what the IPCC are saying. When are governments actually going to wake up to the seriousness of this? There were lockdowns in Ireland and worldwide during the pandemic when we had no vaccines because of the threat to lives. Yet, the Climate Crisis is a very significantly larger threat than that situation, but Governments are choosing profits and greed over survival of not just our own species but other species.
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/19/van-gogh-sunflowers-just-stop-oil-tactics
@Kevin Farrell: no, we are only talking about the end of civilisation and people. Once we are gone the planet will go through its natural cycles again of ice age and bloom. Don’t worry too much about it.
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: its not a ridiculous form of protest. Its a form of protest that gets news. Traditional forms of protest are simply ignored. They don’t work anymore because Media has changed forever. Their actions are considered and more effective. People fighting for the environment and their future being arrested while politicians are burning their country I’m a self indulgent, nose in the trough orgy yet you give criticise them.
@Kevin Farrell: What an absolute load of twaddle, the planet will heal itself as it has done many times before, there will be collateral damage, we have gone past the PNR at this stage.
@Gerard Smith: they are preaching to the converted but making the converted embarrassed to associate themselves with them.
They are not preaching to the unconverted as it doesn’t take a genius to work out that glueing yourselves to things and throwing soup around the place won’t convert the unconverted in this situation.
Converting people is quite important as the government act for the people in a democracy such as ours, and if they don’t they will be replaced in a general election.
While they are telling people there is a problem, which most people already know, in a childish manner (I can remember when my kids were toddlers they used to glue themselves to things and throw soup) there are actually people out there quietly innovating in a drive for real change.
@Kevin Farrell: What a load of old nonsense. The world has been coming to an end for as long as I can remember!!
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: Or let citizens who contribute to society throw soup over them. They’re nothing but a waste of space.
@Gerard Smith: They do nothing to promote their cause. These actions just get them pigeonholed as nuisance making lunatics.
They detract from their cause.
The glue is oil based lads.
@Gert McNulty: nothing a good diesel jet wash wont remove.
@Gert McNulty: My sentiments exactly.
@Davey Ohanlon: or a good slurry spreader
@Davey Ohanlon: throw a few cans of tomato soup over them…see how they like it hahaha
Just imagine if this action blocked a critical care ambulance
@Peter Cuthbert: It has. They’ve already blocked emergency vehicles, such as ambulance and fire brigade in London so far. Only a matter of time when someone dies because of their stupid way of protesting and someone will take a civil action against them for their actions. And I think the Just Stop Oil organisation would lose that case, especially if a jury is involved as the seem to be alienating more people than winning over.
@Peter Cuthbert: like the way constantly grid locked car traffic does?
@Gavin Daly: Nope, good try there though, even in gridlock, traffic moves (slowly mind you), but enough that cars can (and do) move to make space for emergency vehicles coming up behind. These “protesters” and I use the term lightly even block the hard shoulder and bus lanes that emergency vehicles use, hence stopping their response. Comments like yours will only serve to drive moderate people, that could be open to listening to you, further away making the cause worthless.
I see no sympathy here in these comments and rightly so I say.
@Ned: When the world is burning and the delicate balance of our planet’s current atmospheric composition is pushed so far far from the norm that all life starts to die on it, including yours and your family’s, will you be looking for sympathy? At that point, we can’t turn the clock back and say “sorry, we’ve changed our mind, can we have another go at learning to live sustainably?”
We have only one planet Earth. Out of 8 planets and numerous dwarf planets in the solar system, it is the only ONE that supports life. It is the only ONE just the right distance from the sun, with the right balance of gases and water to sustain life; the only ONE in the right zone with a magnetic field to shield us from the deadly solar wind; the only ONE with a surface temperature to sustain life. What’s going on at the moment with “business as usual burning fossil fuels” is akin to people lighting fires on a wooden ship far out at sea. Some of the sails have already caught fire. One group of people lighting fires with coal are told to stop and light them with oil or gas instead! Everyone else is standing around watching as the hull burns. Meanwhile, groups of protesters have glued themselves to the rigging and the rudder because nobody has been listening to their pleas to stop madness. I hope they keep up their protests.
@Kevin Farrell: I struggled to continue to read this long winded and nonsensical comment,
I am concerned about the mind of an individual that would write such stuff as this,
The mind boggles.
@Ned: I’m concerned about someone who has such a short attention span and who would rather bury their head in the sand than admit the reality of the dire situation the planet and we are in.
@Kevin Farrell: I have a lot of attention lad when I am reading sense able comments about climate change,
But yer comment was as extreme and out of this world that I will have to remind myself ignore such comments in the future,
Good night Lad.
Why do they call them activists?
Or maybe they all took a day’s leave.
I bet there’s oil in their hair dye
Leave them there
Need to start spraying them down with sprite or coke. Nobody likes being wet, but wet drying to sticky, that’s a whole other ballgame.
I wonder what the glue was made from ??
The best way they could influence the move off oil is make it more attractive to use alternative sources. Learn to lobby government. Raise Money for new tech. Become scientists / engineers and help play a part in driving new tech creation and adoption. And so on and on….
Gluing your self to a road won’t effect change.
@Paolo Fandango: Governments aren’t listening to the scientists. Even the bare minimum required is not being done.
As for gluing oneself to the road having no effect, well, we’re having the conversation about it.
Have a read of this George Monbiot piece. Well worth a read:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/19/van-gogh-sunflowers-just-stop-oil-tactics
@Kevin Farrell: governments are listening to scientists. Governments are trying to enact change but the pace is dictated by economics.
So to try and make it economically viable The EU have even pegged renewable energy costs to non renewable in order to drive more renewable investment which ironically everyone is complaiNing about and saying these accords should be torn up.
Gluing yourself to a road won’t make a difference , it’ll just make people hate you.
Again, they should lobby governments to improve the attractiveness of using renewables. Or other sensible measures.
@Paolo Fandango: According to the Climate Action Tracker https://climateactiontracker.org/ not a single country in the world has met the 1.5 degrees C Paris Climate obligations. Not one! And the reason why is in your own response to me: “…the pace is dictated by economics”. Capitalism cannot solve the problem. It’s the reason we have a problem in the first place!
@Kevin Farrell: Capitalism is literally the only thing that will solve it. It’s already led to many environmentally viable methods and there’ll be more to come. They just need to be more commercially viable and that takes time and incentive by governments.
What won’t solve it is some wasters blocking traffic and criminally damaging property. If they were able to read the room they’d see that they’re just pi55ing people off. They’re not helping their cause at all no matter how wrong they think everyone is for disagreeing with them.
@Paolo Fandango: To quote yourself: “I wish I could use 100 laughing emojis for this one.”
@Kevin Farrell: thanks Kevin. Good to see you can engage in a rational conversation.
No one is denying any of the things you are stating in terms of the situation we are in. These clowns are just.not helping raise the awareness and if any thing are damaging the wider cause.
Read the room. Folks think they’re clowns. They have not achieved their aim because of the manner in which they are trying to raise awareness.
@Paolo Fandango: where has lobbying government gotten anyone in terms of housing or a health service? Lobbying government only works when you can spend millions doing it. We’re getting close to electricity shortages and still giving planning permission for data centres ffs. Governments don’t serve people, they serve themselves and the rich in that order. If governments are serious about climate change why has not one them not raise taxes on profits from investing in fossil fuel technology? Investment banks are still pumping eye-watering amounts into it. That would have a very significant impact.
Someone should pour oil over this lot. Might make them leave.. Just saying it might be worth it.
Sticky situation,
Run them over.
It’s depressing reading the comments here. We are out of time. Traditional means of effecting change have failed and now we are on the brink of catastrophe. My generation marched and signed petitions and elected environmentalists to public office and did all the right things, but it wasn’t enough and we failed. Now these people are the last bastion of hope for all life on Earth. You should all be thanking them.
@Nóra Nic Oireachtaigh: criminally damaging a high street facade is the ‘last bastion of hope for life in earth’
I wish I could use 100 laughing emojis for this one.
@Nóra Nic Oireachtaigh: completely agree Nora. I think I would be fairly safe in saying that the majority of people expressing their views on this piece are in the generations that caused the problem and have done sweet FA to fix it. But – oh look! Someone protested in an unconventional manner…outrage!!!
@Nóra Nic Oireachtaigh: and doing these sort of “protests” only serves to alienate the very people you want to get on your side. Look at the comment section here, the majority are against the Just Stop Oil organisation now. Any time a representative is on the news, they just scream the same nonsense. That tactic has never won people over. Its the wrong approach and only causing more harm.
@Alan Wright: Oh please. You think people who wanted to save life on Earth have seen these protests and now they’re lobbying for oil companies? Think this through, will you? All these people making nasty, sneering comments lack the ability to reason it through. They will either get sense or they won’t and they will still be sneering at the “wokerati” as they and their loved ones choke, starve or drown. There is absolutely no point in trying to reason with them, nor time to feed into their delusions. The ones who do have the capacity for rational thought, however, if they really just haven’t given it much attention because they are preoccupied with the minutiae of life, may now be talking and thinking about climate catastrophe for the first time because of the attention these protesters have drawn to it. They have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain and there are more of them every day.
Cut off their social welfare handouts or just lock them up.
I’d leave them glued. Night
Plonkers. There’s a video of a guy glueing his hand to the road and then throwing the glue bottle into a storm drain!
These people don’t understand that there is a huge amount of work that needs to be done to wean us off our fossil fuel dependency.
We can’t move much faster, in order to stop using oil we need either thousands of nuclear plants building (plus mining and processing on that scale) or several terawatt hours of power storage and vast numbers of solar panels and wind farms and we need to replace almost every vehicle on land, sea and on the air.
This has to happen so that we can stop burning oil.
They place cart before horse.
If they want to help they could raise funds for electric public transport, organise volunteer groups to install solar heating, house insulation…Work at getting solar and wind farms past silly planning objections (it will upset the racehorses).
DO SOMETHING USEFUL.
have your say