Category: Climate
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Insure Our Survival
In February 2024 Extinction Rebellion spent three days targeting fossil fuel insurers in the City of London. Shortly after this, major insurers Zurich pulled out of insuring new oil and gas. In late October 2024 XR returned to the City of London for another three themed days. Insurance is the Achilles heel of the global…
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Insure Our Future
Why are these people standing in the window of Talbot AIG insurance in the City of London? New fossil fuel projects need three things: permits, money and insurance. Without insurance, most new fossil fuel projects cannot go ahead, and existing ones must close. This makes insurance the Achilles heel of the fossil fuel industry. Fossil…
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Onlookers
At the heart of most environmental protests are committed activists, full of purpose and solidarity. Around the periphery, where disruption meets daily life, a kind of crust or scab forms. Spectators, police and security people, aggressive drivers, curious children with parents, and those who resolutely ignore the activists, all swirl around the edge. If they…
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‘The Right of Juries’
15th May 2023. Outside Inner London Crown Court. This doesn’t look dramatic, but Dr Juliette Brown, a 52-year-old consultant Psychiatrist, seen here, is risking arrest and imprisonment for contempt of court. Before sitting silently on the side of the pavement for an hour she said: “We’re ordinary people, worried about our safety, security, health, the…
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No Step
I last flew in 2019, a night flight from LA to London. While the passengers slept or dozed in front of in-flight movies, I slid a window blind up and peered out. A few metres from my face, two huge jet engines were hammering out burning hot CO2, Nitrous Oxide and a cocktail of other…
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Extinction Rebellion April 2022
“Climate activists are sometimes portrayed as dangerous radicals. The truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, April 4, 2022
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Stranded Assets
Since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, HSBC has poured over $110bn into fossil fuel firms and projects. Valuations of fossil fuel companies include the oil, gas & coal resources they’ve claimed for future exploitation. To comply with the Paris Agreement, most of these must stay in the ground; Mark Carney (former…
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Stop
From 21st December 2020 to 29th March 2021, London came under Tier 4 ‘Stay at Home’ Covid restrictions. We were only allowed out for work or exercise. Non-essential shops and social spaces closed, although ‘one person [was] permitted to meet with one other person in an outside public space’. Our horizons narrowed, and time felt…
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Burners
So why is it that so many carbon footprint calculators claim to be able to offset my 6.9 ton return flight, by persuading Atoc to further reduce her already minuscule footprint? And charge me a pittance to do so. Apart from this being bizarre and arrogant, something doesn’t add up here. Mike Berners Lee agrees:”Offsetting’…
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Time
An excellent double edition of Time Magazine, given over to the climate crisis, features a photo of mine from London Fashion Week 2019. You can read the ‘One Last Chance’ edition here: https://time.com/5864702/extinction-rebellion-climate-activism/
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Climate in February
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…
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Hunger
I’m full of admiration for Peter, Marko and Julian who spent 26 days on hunger strike outside Conservative Party HQ, in the run up to the election. They spent each day sitting in the cold outside the gates in support of XR’s three demands.