ACTIVISTS from the environmental campaigning group
Greenpeace last Monday closed 74 Shell petrol stations in London
and Edinburgh in protest against
the company's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic,
leading to 24 arrests.
They tried to close
down the stations by using an emergency shut-off switch to stop petrol going to
the pumps and then removing a fuse to delay it being switched on again.
The organisation has
since posted a picture of an activist posting one of the fuses to Shell's head
of Arctic drilling, with the message: "We're being careful not to destroy
property. Even the carefully removed components will go back to Shell."
Protesters have
scaled the roof of the Shell station on Queenstown
Road near Battersea
Park in London
and on Dalry Road in Edinburgh,
with police and fire crews attending the scene in Edinburgh.
Activists arrived at
the Battersea Park
branch at 6.45am and used the
station's barriers to close the forecourt. Then they covered the Shell sign
with a Save the Arctic banner and positioned a life-sized polar bear model on
the station's roof.
The protest is part
of Greenpeace's Save the Arctic campaign, which is aiming to prevent oil
drilling and industrial fishing in the Arctic by having
the region recognised as a world park. The organisation understands that Shell
is going to begin drilling in the Alaskan Arctic in the coming weeks, with the
Russian oil company Gazprom also due to work in the region.
Sara Ayech, a
campaigner at the Battersea Park
station, said: "It's time to draw a line in the ice and tell Shell to
stop. That's why today we're going to shut down all of Shell's petrol stations
in the capital cities of London and
Edinburgh. We've got dozens of
people who will hit over 100 Shell garages throughout the day."
No comments:
Post a Comment