Climate protesters have become a daily sight on the streets of London, undeterred by the honking of horns from angry motorists, personal insults and even arrests. This time, Ocean Rebellion campaigners pretended to drown themselves in oil and gas during a protest outside a United Nations agency in London. The climate change activists staged the terrifying demonstration on the steps of the International Maritime Organization, the UN agency responsible for regulating maritime transport. “A drowning ocean goddess symbolizes the serious threat LNG poses to our oceans,” the group wrote on X while sharing photos from the stunt show.
The footage shows an activist dressed as an ‘ocean goddess’ carrying a fishbowl on her head filled with black liquid, as if she were drowning. She was seen screaming as the liquid flooded her face before quickly draining from the bowl. Other protesters around her wore gas masks and brandished gas pumps that spouted flames.
“Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) is not a “green” solution. Methane leaks from LNG ships are 80x more harmful than CO2. The IMO must wake up to this reality before it is too late,” Ocean Rebellion wrote on X.
2/5 Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is not a ‘green’ solution. Methane leaks from LNG ships are 80x more harmful than CO2. The IMO must wake up to this reality before it is too late. #SayNoToLNG #Climatecrisis @OceanRebellion pic.twitter.com/8tFqfqTvV4
— Ocean Rebellion (@oceanrebellion) October 4, 2024
According to the New York PostThe protest took place on Friday, the last day of meetings of the UN agency’s Maritime Environmental Protection Committee, which had met to discuss reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ships. The protesters accused the agency of manipulating the fossil fuel industry and failing to protect the ocean.
“The IMO is failing to protect our oceans. LNG is a dirty fuel disguised as clean. We demand transparency and accountability. Stop listening to fossil fuel lobbyists, start protecting our planet!” the group wrote on the microblogging site.
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Meanwhile, climate activists have been in the news with their high-profile direct action protests, such as disrupting Premier League football matches and sporting events, to raise awareness of their cause. They’ve thrown tomato soup on famous paintings and pasted themselves on picture frames in galleries. They want the government to put a stop to all new oil and gas exploration and have vowed not to give up its protests until it does so.
A few weeks ago, three activists from Just Stop Oil threw soup at two of Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ paintings in the National Gallery in London. This incident occurred just hours after two other members of the protest group were sentenced to prison for a similar act in 2022.