Four Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested after an operation by the Greater Manchester Police. In recent weeks Just Stop Oil has been taking nonviolent action with groups internationally to demand governments establish a Fossil Fuel Treaty, to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. [1]
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
Just Stop Oil supporters are always fully accountable for our actions and as such the four arrested today will accept any legal consequences.
Accountability is a core feature of nonviolence, which is at the centre of Just Stop Oil’s mission. We take action because we want a safe and stable society. Delivering a Fossil Fuel Treaty that ends oil and gas by 2030 is an essential step for our Government to prevent massive disorder.
The rioting and racist attacks that have occurred over the weekend are a foretaste of what will come as climate breakdown progresses and puts unbearable pressures on society. The root causes of these riots are clear. Austerity; manipulative far-right agitators in the streets, the media, and in parliament; and the liberals that fail to challenge their agenda. Imagine when food scarcity, home-destroying floods, and global collapse are mixed in?
Just Stop Oil supporters will continue to do whatever is nonviolently possible to demand a Fossil Fuel Treaty and to defend humanity from the consequences of climate breakdown.
One of those arrested this morning is Ella Ward, 21, an environmental science student from Birmingham, who said:
We are living right now in the middle of climate breakdown and we have pushed the world beyond its physical limits. People are already dying and millions more stand to be murdered by a small number of rich people prioritising profit over life. This government must make a plan with other countries to phase out fossil fuels by 2030. We need a Fossil Fuel Treaty to Just Stop Oil.”
“I know I may be sent to prison and I know I could face many years inside. This fact terrifies me, but it doesn’t alarm me as much as the impending societal collapse and the loss of everything we know and love, which is what we are facing if we don’t take immediate and meaningful action against this crisis. Continuing to extract and burn fossil fuels in the middle of a climate emergency is a violent act against my generation and all future generations.
Another of those arrested this morning is Margaret Reid, 53, a shop worker from Kendal, who said:
“Oil kills. Fossil fuel executives have known this since I was a little girl, when I was dreaming of the future. But what can young people today dream of? Crop failure, war over diminished resources, famine? This is an existential crisis and those who did least to cause the problem are suffering the most right now. We need our government, to work with others, in creating a Fossil Fuel Treaty to Just Stop Oil by 2030. Join us in demanding this before it’s too late.”
The Oil Kills international uprising has been taking action at airports around the world. 21 groups across 12 countries have taken action at 21 airports so far. They include Letzte Generation Germany, Folk Mot Fossilmakta and Scientist Rebellion in Norway, XR Finland, Futuro Vegetal in Spain, Just Stop Oil in the UK, Drop Fossil Subsidies and Act Now – Liberate in Switzerland, Letzte Generation Austria, Extinction Rebellion and Scientists Rebellion in Sweden, Doe Deurne Dicht in Belgium, Last Generation Canada, XR Boston, Last Generation America, and Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island from the USA. [2]
Recent days have seen the world’s four hottest days ever observed by scientists, dozens have been killed in the raging floodwaters and massive mudslides triggered by Typhoon Gaemi, whilst hundreds have been killed in mudslides in Ethiopia and India. Half of Jasper in Canada has been reduced to ash. About 3.6 billion people have endured temperatures that would have been exceedingly rare in a world without burning fossil fuels and other human activities, according to an analysis by scientists at the group Climate Central. [3]
Scientists are warning we are currently in the midst of a climate anomaly that exceeds all previous predictions. In July of last year, the average global temperature jumped by around 0.2 C. This is the amount of warming the climate models were predicting for an entire decade. It’s as though it was suddenly 2034.
“What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records,” said Carlo Buontempo, the director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. [4]
Meanwhile, there are currently 21 political prisoners currently incarcerated in the UK, serving sentences up to five years, for demanding an end to the fossil fuel era. [5]
As long as political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action to protect our communities from the worst effects of climate breakdown by signing a Fossil Fuel Treaty, Just Stop Oil supporters, working with other groups internationally, will take the proportionate action necessary to generate much needed political pressure. This summer, areas of key importance to the fossil fuel economy will be declared sites of civil resistance around the world. Are you in?
Sign up to take action at juststopoil.org.