Extinction Rebellion Scotland block oil rig maintenance facility with prop oil rig
October 06, 2021
Since 6.50am this morning, activists from Extinction Rebellion Scotland are blockading the main entrance of the oil rig maintenance facility at Invergordon Service Base of the Cromarty Firth Port Authority have erected a large 4.2m tall prop oil rig made of scrap materials with a banner saying “Please Decommission Me”. Four are locked onto prop oil barrels in the road, preventing traffic access.
John Lardner, 69, XR Scotland activist and retired history teacher, said “The Chatham House report says that even if the Paris Agreement carbon emissions were achieved, we have almost no chance of staying below pre-industrial levels of warming. We have to act now. Our carbon budget is empty. We have no option”
The group are calling for an end of fossil fuel extraction and support for a transition of skilled oil and gas workers into decommissioning and renewable industries, not new oil fields. Other activists are holding banners nearby saying “Climate Emergency” and “No Future in Fossil Fuels”.
660,000 jobs are at risk as the UK fall behind in green infrastructure and jobs [1], but the North Sea oil and gas industry is expecting a flurry of new contracts. [2]
Maciej Walczuk, 19, XR Scotland activist and engineering student “We don’t have a choice, the fossil fuel industry is already causing deaths of the most vulnerable people on this planet. Places like this must look into the future, to survive they need to transform into doing work that doesn’t compromise our future instead of trying to continue making profit off the expansion of a deadly industry.”
Meanwhile the Oil and Gas Authority are continuing with plans to explore for new oil at Cambo near Shetland [3]
Eleanor Harris, 23, XR Scotland activist and community artist “As someone who desperately wants to have children, it breaks my heart that projects like Cambo are still in the pipeline jeopardising any chance we have of a livable future and leading to the death of billions of people.”
Notes
[1] UK North Sea expecting flurry of contracts and tight supply of oil rigs in 2022
[2] UK faces legal action over North Sea oilfield exploration plans