8th Feb. ‘BP Must Fall’ protest at the British Museum.
BP sponsored the Troy exhibition at the BM. Protestors smuggled a trojan horse into the museum’s forecourt and held peaceful protest events around the museum.
15th Feb. London Fashion Week
Extinction Rebellion staged protests outside a London Fashion Week venue in the Strand.
The clothing industry alone accounts for 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, almost the same as the total emissions of the EU.
– It takes up to 2700 litres of water to produce a conventional cotton t-shirt.
– Approximately 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile production.
– The climate impact of the industry is predicted to increase by 49% by 2030.
– Fashion is a wasteful industry with less than 1% of clothing recycled into new clothing.
– 80% of garment workers are women, of whom many work long exhausting hours for less than half of a living wage.
17th Feb. Heavy fuel oil
Protest outside the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) against the use and carriage of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) by ships in Arctic waters.
Heavy fuel oil (HFO) is an extremely toxic and viscous marine fuel that breaks down slowly in the marine environment, particularly in colder regions like the Arctic. In the event of a heavy fuel oil spill, lack of infrastructure, uncharted waters, severe weather conditions and navigational hazards such as sea ice, make spill response efforts nearly impossible.
Ships burning HFO produce black carbon emissions. These have a potent climate warming effect when emitted at high latitudes. The warming impact is increased by at least a factor of three in the Arctic region as compared to emissions over the open ocean. This is because in the atmosphere, the black carbon particles absorb incoming radiation from above, as well as reflected radiation from below – doubling the warming impact.
When black carbon particles fall onto the Arctic snow and ice, radiation scattered from the snow and ice hits the deposited black carbon particles and causes further warming, plus the amount of sunlight reflected back into space is reduced. Snow and ice melt is accelerated increasing the surface area of exposed, dark ocean water, and promoting a self-reinforcing cycle of human-induced climate warming.
20th Feb. Science Museum
XR die-in at the Science Museum in protest at their acceptance of sponsorship from fossil fuel companies.
27th Feb. Runway 3 court victory
Heathrow runway 3 verdict.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the government’s decision to allow the expansion was unlawful because it did not take climate commitments into account.
