What is the Shell action all about?
Shell is preparing, for the first time, to unleash a drilling fleet of huge vessels upon the fragile and beautiful Arctic, home of the polar bears.
An oil spill would have devastating consequences on this fragile environment and the animals that live in it; Shell knows that it would be impossible to clean up after such devastation. We need to tell them to stop - that's why today we're shutting down all of Shell's petrol stations in London and Edinburgh. Dozens of people are hitting over 100 Shell garages throughout Monday 16 July and we're streaming it live on a dedicated TV channel.
How, exactly, do you shut down a petrol station?
Each petrol station has a safety 'off' switch. You can spot them quite easily as they're in a bright red box. We are switching it off by pulling down the handle on the side of the box and then removing the fuse, so it cannot be turned on again. We are also chaining up all of the pumps with bicycle locks.
Once we've removed the fuse, we're going to post them to Shell's HQ with a letter explaining why we've done this.
Isn't this extremely dangerous?
Not at all. All our activists are extremely well-trained and experienced, and will use insulated tools.
So does the petrol in Shell's garages come from the Arctic?
Not yet, as this will be the first year they try to drill in the Arctic. But in the future it may do. As conventionally extracted oil becomes scarcer, oil companies like Shell are turning to expensive and hard-to-extract oil in places like the Arctic.
What about mums going to pick up their children? What about those who are going to visit a sick relative in hospital but can't make it now?
We certainly don't want to inconvenience mums, or anyone else. That's why we're putting notices on all of the Shell petrol stations we shut with directions to the nearest other petrol station, so people will still be able to fill up their cars elsewhere.
Is Greenpeace anti-car?
No, of course not. We're actually trying to help drivers by campaigning for cleaner, more efficient cars - which is exactly what our VW Dark Side campaign is all about. This would help drivers (including us) to save money. And, in the future we'd like to see a mix of these clean cars, greater car club use and better public transport. We're not campaigning to stop people driving. We're doing this today to tell Shell not to drill in the Arctic.
But Greenpeace activists are driving around in cars to do this action. Isn't that being hypocritical?
We are using cars for this and they're low emission vehicles –someties cars are the quickest way to get around, as mentioned above we're not anti-car. But we're using bikes and public transport too.
Couldn't you just have written Shell a letter or asked for a meeting?
Nearly 500,000 people have written to Shell telling it not to drill in the Arctic. And it hasn't listened.
