Just Stop Oil supporters have climbed onto motorway gantries around the M25 as part of their campaign to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents [1]
At 7.30am this morning, in at least six locations, supporters of Just Stop Oil climbed onto the overhead gantries of the M25, both clockwise and anti-clockwise causing police to halt traffic.
Yesterday evening, Just Stop Oil contacted the Metropolitan Police and National Highways Ltd to advise them that there would major disruption on the M25, and ask them to implement a 30mph speed limit, in line with their responsibilities to keep the public safe.
Indigo Rumblelow, 28, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil from London said:
“What did you expect? This government is complicit in an illegal and unconstitutional plan to issue more licenses and consents for new oil and gas. A plan that will take the world over 1.5C, resulting in the collapse of ordered society, the loss of our rights and freedoms and the death of millions of people.
Our latest Prime Minister Rishi Sunak talks of the importance of ending our dependance on fossil fuels yet he is still planning to allow new fossil fuel projects. This is a failure of politics. People have the legal right under British law to cause disruption to prevent a greater harm: the right of necessity. We do not do this lightly. After thirty years of public debate, lobbying and petitioning, and three years of peaceful civil disobedience, we are still on course for catastrophic climate breakdown and we have nowhere else to go. The government is doubling down on fossil fuels, indicating ever greater levels of criminality.
In the face of this reality, disruptive civil resistance is now inevitable and justified. It will continue until the UK government changes course. We are serious. We have never been more serious. Our families, communities, our country and civilisation are on the cliff edge of destruction. We will not die silently and neither will the people, like you, your friends, neighbours and colleagues who know what has to be done.”
Anthony Whitehouse, 71, a grandfather and gardener from Dewsbury said:
“I have worked hard, supported my family and expected a secure retirement. Instead I find myself in civil resistance against a criminally negligent government. Along with everyone else who understands where we are heading I must try to prevent the disaster that is unfolding. To understand the consequences of climate collapse and not to act is to be complicit in the death of millions and the displacement of hundreds of millions of people from their homes. Ordinary hard working people deserve to know what is coming if we don’t halt new oil and gas.”
Today’s action follows four weeks of continuous civil resistance by supporters of Just Stop Oil during which the police have made 678 arrests. Since the campaign began on April 1st, Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested nearly 2,000 times, with 6 supporters currently in prison.
