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This week I felt the battle between the world and the fossil fuel industry. @JKSteinberger @CharlieJGardner & I organised a letter from scientists calling out the criminalisation of climate protest. 1/8 https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/environment-protest-being-criminalised-around-world-say-experts/ar-BB1fOMSv
Climate scientists know that it has been the efforts of activists that have pushed climate up the political agenda. The fossil fuel industry have therefore moved their investments from denying climate change to suppressing climate activism https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_hsYLiwddDJljp1aR9_879Vn3YTP9D73UMxG4kLD1ws/edit 2/8
Over 400 climate academics signed our letter, including @MichaelEMann @DrKWilkinson @rpancost @JamesGDyke @ClimateDann @KA_Nicholas @efesce @CelineGuivarch @ysaheb @t_wiedmann @Fisher_DanaR @PeterGleick @rahmstorf @WimThiery @Cladupont @ChrisRapley3131 @wouterpoortinga 3/8
@mrmatthewtaylor at @guardian wrote an article about our letter. But within 12 hours that article was taken down. We don’t know why but we presume that it had to do with the @shell_knows @XRebellionUK trial. 4/8
That’s scary because it is an act of silencing. Here we are, having written a letter against criminalisation of climate protest and reports about that letter are then being suppressed through the courts when our letter said nothing about ongoing trials. 5/8
This just reinforces the message of our letter. Those who put their bodies in the way of climate destruction are in the front line of the battle against climate change. As scholars & scientists we need to protect them. 6/8 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_hsYLiwddDJljp1aR9_879Vn3YTP9D73UMxG4kLD1ws/edit
The fossil fuel industry is our enemy. We were happy to see the UK courts declaring Shell protestors not guilty today. 7/8 https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/extinction-rebellion-activists-cleared-criminal-damage-shell-protest-court-b931419.html%3famp
Through our letter we want to raise the alarm against efforts to criminalise people around the world who seek to protect us all. Protestors are not the enemy. The fossil fuel industry is the enemy. 8/8 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_hsYLiwddDJljp1aR9_879Vn3YTP9D73UMxG4kLD1ws/edit
