Braving the bitterly cold wind, our goodly company of Greenpeace volunteers received lots of support from the public during our Dump Shell campaigning outside of the Waitrose store in Old Town, Eastbourne, on Saturday 8th December. The star of our show was, as usual, our very own polar bear, who wombled, jiggled and cuddled his way into people's hearts, especially with the old ladies and the kiddies. There was no end of cars hooting their horns in support as they drove past us. Many campaign leaflets were handed out, and many Dump Shell stickers rapidly filled up our sticker board. Lots of photos and videos were taken, and lots of fun and laughter had by all during a hectic couple of hours. Plus there were some interesting little discussions and debates with some members of the public who were curious about why Waitrose should be working with Shell at all, and why Shell even wants to drill for oil in the Arctic, and what the implications of such drilling is for the Arctic environment and wildlife. Most people went away sympathetic towards our campaign, but one person made the memorable, if perhaps callous, statement that "well, we've got to get the oil from somewhere, haven't we?" and moving away rapidly before we could answer her question! We even had a little girl helping us out with the leafletting, which gives us all hope that some of the younger generation get the message that we need to stop trashing the planet and that companies like Waitrose should not hop into bed with fossil fuel companies like Shell, who have no regards for the fragility of an environment like the Arctic, which is already suffering terribly from the effects of global warming, with potentially disastrous consequences for all of us.
By Andrew Durling
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