Firefighter doused in ‘oil’ in Shell profits stunt as wildfires rage

Campaigners from Fossil Free London dressed as firefighters during a protest outside Shell HQ on 29 July. Meanwhile others poured a black liquid resembling oil over their heads.

Behind them placards read: “Shell Fuels Wildfires,” “Oil Fuels Wildfires,” and “Stop Pouring Oil on the Flames”.

The protest comes as Shell is announcing its quarterly profits on Thursday 30 July.

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as wildfires rage across Spain and France. Record-breaking heatwaves across Europe this summer are fuelling the fires.

A recent study found that the climate crisis enabled 55 out of the 213 global heatwaves that would have otherwise been impossible to occur between 2000 and 2023. Fossil fuels made all of these more likely and more intense.

They also found that just pollution from Shell alone made almost a quarter of these heatwaves 10,000 times more likely, and 51 of these heatwaves possible.

Robin Wells, spokesperson for Fossil Free London, said:

Fire needs fuel. And as we witness fires rage across Scotland, France and Spain, we all know those red and yellow flames are turbocharged by Shell’s oil.

For decades Shell covered up the science and continued to drill for the oil that makes wildfires more intense, last longer, and burn further. However the first ember hit the undergrowth in each place, it is Shell, and corporations like it, who set the tinder in place.

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And as we witness one of the biggest evacuation efforts on the continent since World War Two, the heavy weight in our heart is the knowledge there’s so much more to come.

Stop pouring Shell’s oil onto this house, torn down by fire. People need to stop the harm and rebuild.

Andy Burnham and Miatta Fahnbulleh [Energy Security and Net Zero secretary] need to make clear now that protecting people from wildfires, drought, crop failures and heatwaves means stopping new oil. It means they must stop Rosebank.

Featured image via Fossil Free London

By The Canary

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