Photos by: Gareth Morris, Chris Jerrey, Ilya Fisher, Tristian Herbert, Robin Markland, Joao Daniel Periera, Denise Laura Baker
The theme for Day Two of the Extinction Rebellion G7 summit actions was ‘Greenwash’. Its purpose: to expose rich countries and their banking systems which talk about ‘green growth’ while continuing to prop up carbon polluting companies and initiatives.
Actions included: a procession through Falmouth to the G7 media centre accompanied by samba bands; a G7 versus the rest of the world football match in which the referee is a banker and the games are rigged reflecting the reality of climate negotiations for developing countries, the Big heads street theatre with the G7 leaders kicking the climate crisis can down the road and propping up the fossil fuel industry with wads of cash and a “Restaurant at the end of the world” in which ‘Fossil Fuels’, ‘Profit before Planet’ and ‘War’ greedily eat the Earth, while attended by G7 leaders, bankers and the media as waiters offering money, broken promises and greenwash.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) activist and one of the ‘Shell 7’, Senan Clifford, said: “Greenwashing’ is about fossil fuel companies like Shell trying to convince people that they are part of the solution; it’s about banks like Barclays promising Net Zero while pumping trillions into new fossil fuel projects; and it’s about the UK government as greenwasher-in-chief claiming climate leadership while simultaneously granting licenses for new oil and gas exploration.
“Shell is a major greenwash culprit. On one hand it announces plans to cut its emissions by half by 2050. Yet, 99% of its business is still in fossil fuels. Under its new timeline, Shell would only achieve carbon neutrality by 2070 – far too late to limit global warming to the 1.5 degrees the UN is now saying will be necessary if we are to avoid catastrophic damage.”
XR spokesperson Nat Squire, an osteopath from Falmouth, added: “G7 is greenwashing on a grand scale: the gap between promises and action has never been greater. A recent analysis by Green Alliance found government policies announced so far would deliver just 26 per cent of the necessary cuts to achieve the target of a 68 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030.
“As we brace for a tidal wave of greenwash we hope people will also read our Cornwall 2021 Souvenir Programme – News of the G7 World – likely to become a collector’s item!”
The ‘Change is Now’ bus tour started in Bournemouth and toured around the South West including to Exeter, Teignmouth and Taunton. Bringing rebels and creativity and music with it, the tour was a great opportunity to do outreach. We gave out a lot of leaflets , did lots of art blocking and signed up people […]
Autonomous activists occupied the Queen Camel Oak in her final weeks on earth to extend her life in a bid to protect her. Unfortunately, this Ancient, 450 year old, Oak tree was lost to the destructive grip of the RIS2 road building scheme, a £140 million scheme to dual the road. The tree stood near […]
Rebels from the South West who held Oil Firm Valero to account for their dirty business processing fossil fuels and polluting our rising seas at our South West Summer Uprising on 17th July.
Successfully occupying the grounds of Cornwall Council in Truro, and stealthily erecting their tents overnight, activists from all over Cornwall delivered a two week programme of events, talks and workshops for the community and for councillors to attend. At first the campers were met with distrust and asked to leave, but after a few days […]
Photo credit: Gav Goulder Press Release – February 10th, 10am For Immediate release A coalition of investors, who own the Camborne constituency office of Environment Minister George Eustice, announced today that they have donated all of his rent so far to the Insulate Britain campaign. In the run up to the Extinction Rebellion protests at […]
Unofficial estimates suggest around 2,000 rebels took part in 3 days of creative and occasionally disruptive actions at the G7 summit in Cornwall from June 11-13th. Many arrived on foot or bike after epic multi-day treks. This roundup focusses on some of the actions we may have missed while preparing for or particpating in the […]
Photos: Serena Shellenberg, Joao Daniel Pereira, Gareth Morris, Ilya Fisher, Chris Jerrey The theme for the final day of our actions in Cornwall was ‘All hands on deck’ as the G7 proved to be yet another failed opportunity for change. We are clear that all sections of society must work towards creating a better world […]
Photos by: Gareth Morris, Chris Jerrey, Ilya Fisher, Tristian Herbert, Robin Markland, Joao Daniel Periera, Denise Laura Baker The theme for Day Two of the Extinction Rebellion G7 summit actions was ‘Greenwash’. Its purpose: to expose rich countries and their banking systems which talk about ‘green growth’ while continuing to prop up carbon polluting companies […]