Eco-activists demonstrate outside ExxonMobil’s HQ to demand end to oil production and greenwashing.
Extinction Rebellion is today protesting outside ExxonMobil’s UK Headquarters in Leatherhead to demand the oil company halts a major $96bn plan to open new oil and gas fields.
The protestors accuse the oil company of trying to cloak its continuing drive for greater oil and gas production behind a “greenwashing” campaign.
ExxonMobil plans to invest $167bn in new oil and gas fields over the next 10 years despite the escalating climate crisis. This compares to just $9bn spent by the oil giant since the year 2000 on developing or deploying low carbon technology.
Reckless
Kirsty Ankiewicz, a graphic designer living in Epsom, said: “For the sake of my children and yours, companies like ExxonMobil cannot be allowed to destroy what is left of our beautiful planet.”
Marion Tucker, 65, a retired business analyst from Woking, added: “ExxonMobil has knowingly been exploiting and destroying the planet contributing directly towards the climate emergency and mass extinction of species for decades, this cannot be allowed to continue.”
Another rebel, John Gee, 45, a horticulturalist from Leatherhead, said “Climate change is already making it harder for farmers to produce food. It’s time Exxon shareholders realised they can’t eat money.
“The world is changing and growing numbers of people want urgent action on the climate and ecological emergency.”
Extinction Rebellion protestors are calling on the company to stop its reckless and continuing investment in new oil and gas fields, refocus the business and invest in the clean energy sector.
Science
Demonstrators hung banners and placards on the company’s gates along with “Climate Crime Scene” warning tape and delivered a letter via a security guard addressed to Exxon’s board which calls for ExxonMobil to “do the right thing”.
The protestors also hung huge banners on the nearby M25 footbridge and along the A24.
Extinction Rebellion groups across the country are placing banners on motorway and major road bridges today to announce Rebellion protests planned to take place in Parliament Square starting on 1st September.
This latest XR national uprising – dubbed Rebel for Life – will see two weeks of mass civil disobedience in London and across the UK as rebels demand MPs and the government back the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill and set up a National Citizens’ Assembly.
Sarah Clayton, 67, Epsom resident and mother, concluded: “Exxon has been one of the main opponents of action on climate for decades. It is a tragedy for the future of life on earth that oil companies have for so long not only ignored the science, but done all they can to boost sales of fossil fuels.”
This Author
Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Extinction Rebellion.
