Amazing. Awesome. Epic. I could go on. However you choose to describe it, the Aurora parade in London was a day of superlatives. Big Bear meets Big Oil. The Arctic Uproar rumbles through the tarmac (it really did by the way). The weather forecast might have been pretty foul (actually not bad 'til the end), but it didn't stop something like 3000 people joining Aurora on her way to Shell's HQ, including a sizeable cluster from the Southampton group.
There was a little flying walrus, a trio of snow-dancers, a rather jolly snowy owl - an autumnal-Arctic carnival in all but name, but the purpose was clear - and essential - Shell must not be permitted to drill in the Arctic. If they do, they will destroy the fragile ecosystems found there - and their seemingly insatiable thirst for fossil fuel-dollars would make it impossible to move beyond oil and tackle climate change. At some point, a line has to be drawn - no more dodgy oil exploration - and that line was drawn outside their London HQ along with 100 cities on five continents - a truly global day of action.
So what next? Well, we keep campigning, Aurora goes to Germany and then all over the world. But really it's time for Shell to make the change that has to come. Will they show some genuine responsibility and scrap their Arctic drilling plans, or get petty and litigious about their injunction against us? I guess we'll find out soon but in the meantime, if you haven't already, please do add your name to the 3.5million+ people already supporting our campaign to #savethearctic.
If you're interested in the mainstream media's take on this, there are bits and bobs all over the place e.g. here and here. If you want to know how Aurora was designed and built - there is a series of features online - part 4 is here. For more about the issues, why not spend a minute or two watching this...
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