Just Stop Oil, the climate group based in the U.K., known for tossing cornstarch on Stonehenge and throwing soup on Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers,” announced Thursday that it would cease these kinds of protests. [emphasis, links added]
The announcement came as some of its members serve jail sentences, including the group’s founder, Roger Hallam, for their role in blocking traffic on the M25 — the equivalent of an interstate highway — surrounding London.
It also comes a week after a North Dakota jury ordered Greenpeace to pay $667 million in trespass and other claims to an oil and gas company over its enrollment in a pipeline protest in 2016, a verdict the group is appealing.
While climate activists say their rights to protest fossil fuels are being trampled on, critics say their actions too often veer away from peaceful protests into criminal acts.
Rather than spawning widespread support as the activists hoped, when the protests crossed the line, they now face real consequences.
People are no longer willing to look the other way when these activists’ behavior runs afoul of the law.
Critics say it’s part of a shift in the national dialogue on climate and energy issues in the wake of President Donald Trump’s reelection.
People are no longer willing to look the other way when these activists’ behavior runs afoul of the law.
“It’s the Trump effect. There’s a cultural shift throughout the West that’s going on right now, and that was reflected in the election of Donald Trump,” Jeff Reynolds, senior editor for Restoration News, told Just the News.
Crossing The Line In The EU
Over the course of seven days in November 2022, members of Just Stop Oil climbed over the gantries at various points along M25, which disrupted traffic along every sector of the encircling London highway.
During the trial, the jury heard evidence about people who missed funerals, missed flights, and students who missed exams. A child with special needs was unable to take his medication, which made him “volatile.”
Reportedly, someone with an aggressive form of cancer missed a doctor’s appointment and had to wait two months to get another.
People lost wages, a delivery driver was unable to deliver thousands of dollars worth of food to a hospital, and a police officer was injured when he was knocked off his motorcycle.
Last summer, Hallam and four other accomplices were sentenced for their role in the protest. Hallam insisted his actions were non-violent and characterized his crime as merely “giving a talk” on Zoom.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Christopher Hehir explained that the Zoom call revealed how “intricately planned the disruption was, and the level of sophistication involved.”
He told the defendants in his sentencing remarks that they had “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.”
The same year, Just Stop Oil crusaders Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland threw paint over van Gogh’s “Sunflowers 1888,” causing an estimated $13,400 in damages, according to the Guardian.
Holland was subsequently sentenced to 20 months, and Plummer received two years. An hour after Plummer was sentenced, three activists from Just Stop Oil entered the National Gallery in London and attacked “Sunflowers 1888” and another van Gogh painting, “Sunflowers 1889.”
Altogether, 16 activists from the group were sentenced to jail in four different cases. Hallam and the others appealed the sentences.
Plummer’s and Holland’s sentences were dismissed, Politico reported, and six others, including Hallam, were granted minor reductions in their sentences. Hallam’s sentence was reduced from five to four years.
Top photo of climate activist getting arrested by John Cameron on Unsplash
Read rest at Just The News
