Last Saturday I got (most of) my kit off and cycled around central London, with two of those pretty little Stop Shell stickers posing as DIY nipple pasties.
Funny what one ends up doing 'for the cause' – both cycling naked through Covent Garden and (eventually) giving in to persistent cajoling to blog about it.
Given Shell's drilling rigs were revving up to chunter north in search of oil in the Arctic, what better opportunity to spread the word among warm audiences than at World Naked Bike Ride – when 800 mainly starkers cyclists took to the streets of London.
After all, in the words of the naked organisers whoever they may be:
“It's time to put a stop to the indecent exposure of people and the planet to cars and the pollution they create. We face automobile traffic with our naked bodies as the best way of defending our dignity and exposing the vulnerability faced by cyclists and pedestrians on our streets as well as the negative consequences we all face due to dependence on oil, and other forms of non-renewable energy.”
Yeah! Therefore it seemed only right to make sure all of those gawkers, tourists and photographers got a good eyefull of Shell's reckless plans to drill for oil in the Arctic - and Greenpeace's plans to refuse to let them trash one of the world's last remaining wildernesses to get to the oil that has caused the climate change that has caused the ice to melt that has made this possible... You get the picture.
The ride invites a range of body-painted works of art as well as activist messages. From “refine this” and other oil and gas slogans, to road safety messages to “this is the most humble day of my life”. I just went for “Save the Arctic - Stop Shell”.
An afternoon of cycling, sunshine, and a handy supply of Greenpeace leaflets in my pannier to hand out made for a jolly day of chats with random strangers about Shell and the arctic. Although I'm first in the queue for a more modest polar bear costume this Saturday...
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