NEWS AND COMMENT: Greenpeace staged a dramatic protest in support of taking steps to curb global warming when they unfurled a massive banner on the Intercontinental London hotel hosting a meeting of high-profile oil executives. It’s is the annual Energy Intelligence Forum, with speakers including the heads of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, Amin Nasser, and Norway’s Equinor.
Greenpeace say that the big oil companies are profiting off the cost-of-living crisis are making more money than before. And while their profits surge, the climate crisis which they’ve caused is “wreaking havoc at unprecedented rates; hitting people who have contributed the least to global emissions the hardest.”
Greenpeace regard these executives as greedy and deceptive and they need to be challenged. It’s why I am posting this article. I agree and support them.
The oil executives are only concerned with making profits. They will go on pushing for profits as long as they can and in the process ignore global warming until they really have to change their ways. But it might be too late by then.
Greta Thunberg
On a separate but linked issue, the world’s best known climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, was at the protest and arrested. She had joined the activists in London where demonstrations are expected to run throughout the three-day meeting.
She gave speeches while Greenpeace activists were abseiling down the front of the hotel! The police confirmed that they had made 21 arrests including Greta Thunberg. Why are the police arresting protesters at legally convened protests against something which is of vital concern to the world?
How can the police do this? Well, the Metropolitan Police said that their officers had imposed conditions on the protesters under the Public Order Act at 12:32 pm according to a report in The Telegraph newspaper.
The police had asked the protesters to move from the road onto the pavement. They were allowed to protest on the pavement but not on the road. As some continued to protest on the road they were arrested under section 14 of the Public Order Act.
In Britain, it’s become a semi-police state. In days gone by this wouldn’t have happened. But now they arrest Greta Thunberg because she is on the road. I don’t think the police are doing themselves a favour in terms of public relations.
The Times tells me that 29 people were arrested. Thunberg was led away by police and placed in the back of a van.
Protesters said that Thunberg was arrested while linking arms and chanting and taken to Wandsworth police station. The Times also reports that she was arrested for obstructing the highway and criminal damage.
The demonstration itself was organised by Fossil Free London apparently. This appears to be two organisations working in tandem because the banner, as mentioned, was organised by Greenpeace.
The protesters shouted “oily money out”. Thunberg wore a badge with those words. They also chanted “cancel the conference”. Some lit smoke flares.
Before her arrest she said: “The world is drowning in fossil fuels. Our hopes and dreams and lives are being washed away by a flood of greenwashing and lies. It has been clear for decades that the fossil fuel industries were well aware of the consequences of their business models, and yet, they have done nothing.”
Agreed. The people who run the world, the politicians and the top business people, are driving the planet towards a catastrophe.
UPDATE: As Greta Thunberg was searched by the police, protesters shouted “thank you Greta”. Fossil Fuel London said that Thunberg was among six protesters who were released from Wandsworth police station at two a.m. The group said that some of the protesters were given bail conditions which prevented them from entering Westminster until their court appearance in November.
FYI-the maximum sentence for failing to comply with section 14 of the Public Order Act is six months imprisonment and a £2500 fine. And, further, last week a Swedish court convicted Thunberg of disobeying a police order to leave a climate protest and they find her £185.
Update: The Times of Friday, October 20, 2023, reports that “Thunberg back at protest a day after being charged”. She joined a demonstration outside the offices of JP Morgan and Barclays almost immediately after she was charged as mentioned above. As I have stated in the past, Greta Thunberg is impressively committed to doing all she can to cajole the politicians into doing the right thing in taking expensive steps and difficult steps to meet the challenge of global warming. She does this fearlessly.
