Everything you need to know about the environmental protests happening in Edinburgh

Various climate and environmental protests have recently taken place in Edinburgh.

Just Stop Oil protestors have been staging unique acts of protest all over the UK in recent weeks. Most famously, the environmental group threw two tins of tomato soup over Van Goph’s famous painting Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery on Friday the 14th of October. Just Stop Oil has decided to cause “continuous disruption” through actions that are expected to last over a month.

Just Stop Oil hosted an event in Edinburgh on Sunday the 16th of October at the Augustine United Church, which is located on George IV Bridge. The talk was advertised on posters that read, “Oil Is killing people now. It is destroying the climate and our future. We need your help”.

The Edinburgh Tab spoke to an Edinburgh University student who attended the event. Susanna Cabot, a fourth-year Politics and Anthropology student, told us that there were two leaders who hosted the talk and about approximately 10 attendees of various backgrounds. She said: “The first presenter gave an emotive description of the climate crisis to outline what’s occurring, she drew people in by focusing on the emotional aspects”. Susanna then described how the second of the two presenters gave a more hopeful presentation of what could be done and different ways to protest.

According to Susanna, the Just Stop Oil group members who led the meeting made it clear that you don’t have to be getting arrested to be an active participant in combating the climate crisis, as long as you are doing whatever is within your means to be a part of the conversation and spread knowledge in whatever ways you can.

Via the Just Stop Oil Facebook

Susanna attended the meeting with her cousin, Roselle, who told us that: “Just Stop Oil stages predominately arrestable interventions that are all nonviolent. Our message is tied to greater efforts to combat the climate crisis. [We want to] stop oil production and licensing in the UK”.

Both Susanna and Roselle found the talk educational and shared that the presenters from Just Stop Oil discussed hop, while they are trending right now for viral protests, the group has specific demands that are carefully calculated in line with their operation.

The Just Stop Oil website outlines its specific goals. The website states that “fossil fuels are killing us”, suggests that “together, we can demand change” and promotes the idea of “no new oil & gas projects” as a solution. 

The statement on their website says:

“Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to ensure that the government commits to ending all new licenses and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK”.

Just Stop Oil is not the only activism group that has been spreading its messages and protesting within Edinburgh. The animal rights group Animal Rebellion poured milk onto the floor of Edinburgh’s Morningside Waitrose on the 15th of October. A video of the incident in Waitrose shows two protestors tipping the contents of many cartons of milk all over the floor whilst a Waitrose employee attempts to intervene.

The Animal Rebellion Twitter page tweeted that: “Milk Pours are currently happening across the UK. All are concerned individuals calling on the government to give us a liveable future, a #PlantBasedFuture”.

Via The Animal Rebellion Facebook

The Animal Rebellion website explains that they are demanding a plant-based future so that “The UK Government supports farmers and fishing communities to move away from animal farming and fishing as an urgent and immediate transition to a plant-based food system” and are demanding that “The UK Government commits to rewild the freed-up land and ocean as part of a broader program of wildlife restoration and carbon drawdown”.

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