A few months ago, groups all over the country visited dozens of Shell garages to #tellshell to stay out of the Arctic. That was the first Shellday. Yesterday, local groups joined together to visit more garages as part of Shellday 2. We were at the garage in Ringwood, along with volunteers from groups in Portsmouth, Salisbury and Bournemouth/Poole, and a concerned polar bear (no-one wants to be homeless - or extinct), displaying banners and leafleting motorists and passers-by. We booked a day of decent weather too...
So, why Shell? Well, they are trying to use the melting of Arctic ice as an opportunity to drill for more oil in the Arctic, trashing fragile ecosystems and communities, and making climate change (which is causing the melting in the first place) even worse - the irresponsibility and irony of this seems lost on them as they seek yet more oil oney. They aren't the only company doing this - Gazprom has also been trying - but they are about the most aggressive in insisting on this unacceptable course of action. Hence Shellday and the wider Save the Arctic campaign. In the last week or so, both Shell and Gazprom have delayed planned Arctic drilling until next year because of ice formation (more irony), but this does not mean that they have abandoned their plans - and so the campaign continues. More events on the way, but in the meantime, visit the website, and if you are a tweeter, use and look out for #tellshell and #savetheartic
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