It was a very early start this morning. I'm not much of a morning person and the adrenaline was pumping, so I was a bit worried about driving through central London my nerves feeling fuzzy and frazzled. But as I motored through the quiet streets of London at 5am in silence behind the wheel of a Toyota Prius I started to feel better. Because I have to admit, I really like driving.
I grew up in North America and it wasn't summer without a good road trip. I have eco-guilt about it, but I love the freedom, covering huge distances, being able to stop anytime and anywhere and enjoy the view or a bit of local culture. But I don't own a car - I don't need one in the city, and I don't want one because of the resources they eat up and the climate impacts. Well, until now.
I drove along the Thames towards our first BP station. The sky was pink and the moon was almost full in the sky. There were a number of other electric vehicles on the streets - milk trucks. And so I felt relaxed as we pulled up to the first station on Vauxhall Bridge road.
The four of us - team manatee - hopped out and walked to the first BP station. Nikki went to the window to talk to the man working behind the glass window while someone else went to the emergency fuel switch, turned it off and began to remove the handle. The man behind the counter seemed sleepier than the rest of us. "What are you doing? What..."
Nikki was still taking to him when we had finished removing the handle and putting up the "closed - moving beyond petroleum" signs.
Next station, Kennington Connect. The shop gates were closed and the man at the counter seemed equally baffled. We turned the emergency fuel switch and removed the handle easily with a screw driver. The switch is in plain view for customers to use in case of a spill or fire. It turns off petrol to all the pumps. Like the sort of thing BP should have had working in the Gulf. With the station inoperable and closed signs up we were gone again within minutes.
When we arrived at Newington Connect they must have been in the middle of a shift change. There was a woman outside taking a keen interest in what we were doing and alerting the man inside. We gave them a letter explaining what we were doing and why we were there, had a little chat and were finished before they had any idea what they should do.
Next up, Camberwell. Again it all went smoothly and as we drove off towards our last station we couldn't really believe how easy it was, then someone said "where's the ladder?" We had a short four step ladder for putting up the closed signs on posts near the entrance to the stations. I left it leaning against the wall back at Camberwell. No big deal, we hadn't really used it since the first station.
Last up, Peckham service station. We parked around the corner and walked towards the station. We were just 50 yards from the entrance when a police cruiser passed us and indicated to turn into the station. I thought we'd been rumbled. But the driver turned off the indicator and kept going, and so did we.
There was a big BP tanker in the yard and the driver stepped out just as we stepped on to the forecourt. I expect he was there to fill up the station but we didn't stick around long enough to find out. We turned off the emergency fuel switch, put up the closed signs and headed back into the city.
We swung by Camberwell, the ladder was still there leaning against the wall where I left it. But now there were orange traffic cones across the entrance to the station - shut down. Result.
We shut down five stations in 50 minutes, but it was so easy we felt like we could have done more.
We also covered 49 miles in total in the Toyota Prius and came back with more "fuel" than we left with. The Prius is a hybrid - it can run on electric or petrol. Its had some bad reviews in the past so I wasn't expecting much from the car, I wasn't even expecting that I would be able to use the electric mode most of the time.
I luckily had a chance to try it out the day before and get comfortable driving it. As soon as I got in, I had to get back out. I couldn't figure out how to start it or put it in gear. The fact that there isn't even a key was a bit baffling. So at first the electronics were a bit complex and confusing, but after I got the hang of it I was totally impressed. I didn't want to give it back.
The petrol engine only cut in twice - once going up a steep
incline, another time when I first started it (not sure if that was my fault or
the car) - and in total was running for less than a minute. We also came back
with more energy in the battery than we left with because it charges itself.
How cool is that - free energy. The friction of the brakes charges the battery
as well as while driving around. This current model can also be charged by
plugging it in to the grid. If that was combined with renewable energy we'd
have cheap, sustainable, clean fuel for cars. I can see why the oil companies
don't like it.
As I was on my way to drop off the Prius, the former president of Shell Oil John Hofmeister was on the radio talking about the transition away from oil. He said that we need to continue to rely on fossil fuels because of their "affordability and availability" and that renewable sources or energy are "very expensive and variable".
How can we afford inaction looking at what has happened in the Gulf, what is happening to our climate? The technologies exist now to begin to wean society off oil and other fossil fuels. They may not yet be perfect, but if we accept the fossil fuel industries' excuses that clean technologies don't work as well as the old systems than we won't make the investment needed to switch to a low carbon economy - before it is too late for our oceans and coastline, for our fragile ecosystems, for our health, for our climate. That's one road I don't want to go down.
