Today's peaceful protest outside a Shell garage in Bristol was inspired by the heroic actions of Victo, Ali, Sabine, Sandra, Liesbeth & Wiola who took part in the 'Iceclimb' protest in London on Thursday 11th July.
There was much excitement at our group meeting on Thursday as literally less than an hour before it started, 6 determined and courageous women had completed an amazing 14 hour climb to the top of The Shard in London to highlight the fact that Shell continues to plan to drill for oil in the Arctic. At 310 metres, the tallest structure in Western Europe, rises from the capital like a shard of ice and is already an iconic landmark. The Shard was also chosen by Greenpeace as it is located slap bang between Shell's 3 headquarters and I can imagine the CEO and senior staff looking out from their office windows, dreading the international publicity that the 'Iceclimb' was generating. The experienced team of climbers who came from the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Poland, Holland and Belgium were climbing The Shard on behalf of the 3.4 million people from around the world who have already signed the petition to Save the Arctic. The news of the climb made international headlines. Please view the Channel 4 coverage below.
Bristol East Greenpeace were naturally disappointed that none of our female members had been asked to take part in the 'Iceclimb' action, but as a group we were so inspired by the achievement of The Shard 6 that we decided to give Shell 'a little bit more hell' by organising a 2 hour peaceful protest outside Silvey's Garage at the bottom of the M32 on a busy Saturday afternoon. OK, our event was on a much smaller scale and we kept our feet firmly on terra firma, but we are sure that our protest encouraged people to think about how the likes of Shell are planning to drill for oil to line the pockets of their shameless shareholders to the detriment of the shareholders of OUR planet. That's you and me.
Big thanks to Natasha for organising the event and to Ian, Fi, Lauren, Sergey, Loz and Rich B who turned up to wave placards and give out leaflets to motorists. We were all in awe of Ian who campaigned for the best part of two hours in his polar bear costume in sweltering temperatures - it certainly saves on suncream!
To add your name to the 3.4 million signatures that have signed the Save the Arctic petition - just click here. If you want to get more involved then reserve Sunday 15th September in your diary when Bristol East Greenpeace will be getting involved in an Arctic Global Day of Action. Subscribe to our local webpage or 'Like' Greenpeace Bristol on Facebook to be kept in the loop! Photos of this and previous events are also on our Flickr site - click here to view.
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