Interview with a Stop Esso activist
Will St Leger is 29 years old and lives in London. He is an active supporter of both Greenpeace and the Stop Esso campaign. For the last six months he has been working hard, and having a lot of fun, campaigning to stop Esso ruining our planet.
What will you be doing on Dec 1st?
I'll be picketing my local Esso station, with loads of other supporters and friends. We've already hired a tiger costume and made 'BOYCOTT E$$O' placards, which we're going to place along the road approaching the station first thing in the morning.
Then we'll spend the day handing out leaflets and stickers, talking to as many motorists as we can and explaining the dirty tricks that Esso has played to sink international action on climate change.
Do motorists really want to hear about Esso's dirty tricks?
Loads of motorists took our leaflets and stickers last time I campaigned at an Esso petrol station. They were all shocked by the truth. And more than half vowed never to return Esso again.
The kids in the cars were brilliant - they got really excited by our Esso tiger's antics and kept waving enthusiastically at us. And we got loads of supportive beeps from other passing drivers. Everyone was in really good spirits all day.
Will St Leger
Esso blatantly disregards our right to a clean world, free of the dangers that climate change will bring. Esso is manipulating the Kyoto treaty, which was formed to save the climate.
This willingness to sacrifice our environment for short-term profits - that makes me really angry. I want everyone to know.
How did you start?
In March I started by putting 'Boycott Esso' stickers on posters at train stations, and distributing leaflets. It was great to watch people's faces as they picked the leaflets up.
Which led on to�?
Well, July saw me on the road, bringing the Stop Esso message to the street. Fuelled by bio-diesel and strong coffee I travelled with two other active supporters all around the UK, from Carlisle to Cornwall.
We rolled into Esso service stations in the small hours and stencilled 'BOYCOTT ESSO' in huge white letters on their forecourts.
A local stop Esso group
In August I went to Ireland, to a U2 concert. We handed out Stop Esso information to the crowd, with the band's wholehearted support. In fact U2 even played the Stop Esso animation on their huge screens to 80,000 people! The response was brilliant.
Esso employees even took stickers away to paste in their own office toilets�
So will Esso ever change?
I don't think they have any choice. The rest of the world's governments, scientists and people are working in one direction, and Esso are driving the opposite way. They will eventually meet public opinion head on, and they will not survive.
