PRESS RELEASE, January 26th 2008
Shell’s two year tenure as sponsor of the Natural History Museum’s ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ exhibition has come to an end. A determined, creative two year national campaign, coordinated in part by the direct action group Rising Tide and its Art Not Oil (1) campaign, helped to force the NHM to ditch Shell.
Activists from London Rising Tide staged a 'die-in' in the BP sponsored Tate Britain on 4 January. Bob Jones from LRT said, "We're here to demand that the Tate cut its ties with BP; an art gallery is no place for an environmental hazard such as an oil company".
"BP are here to greenwash their image and distract from the ecological devastation they're causing around the world". The protesters handed out lots of leaflets and urged patrons to demand the end of oil company sponsorship of art galleries. (CLICK 'read more' TO SEE VIDEO)
- photos to follow
Activists 'die' in the Tate Britain
4 January 2008
Activists from London Rising Tide staged a 'die-in' in the
BP sponsored Tate Britain this afternoon. Bob Jones from LRT said "we're here to demand that the Tate cut it's ties with BP, an art gallery is no place for an environmental hazard such as an oil company". "BP are here to Greenwash their image and distract from the ecological devastation they're causing around the world". The protesters handed out lots of leaflets and urged patrons to demand the end of Oil Companies sponsorship of Art Galleries.
On 3rd January 2008, at about lunch time, the LRT Greenwash Guerrillas discovered a major source of greenwash at Shell HQ in Waterloo, London. The Guerrillas entered the lobby for an inspection but were so repelled by the Greenwash that they had to leave (the security assisting their escape).
The police helpfully showed up to show the Guerrillas where the public pavement started and the infected area began and helped out by making the scene look more official and scary. The public were very receptive to warnings of contamination and seemed quite concerned. A lot of flyers were given out and people seemed interested to know what was going on, with a few people running away after heeding warnings of contamination.
On Thursday 03 Jan 2008, at about lunch time, the LRT Greenwash Guerrillas discovered a major source of greenwash at Shell HQ in Waterloo, London. The Guerrillas entered the lobby for an inspection but were so repelled by the Greenwash that they had to leave (the security assisting their escape).
Fed Up Polar Bear Disrupts National BBC Wildlife Magazine HQ
11 December 2007
Today, the International Rising Tide network pulled off a Yes Men style hoax targeting the 33 businesses and organisations that form the US Climate Action Partnership (including BP, Caterpillar, ConocoPhillips, Dow, DuPont, Ford, General Electric, General Motors Corp., Shell and Xerox to name but a few). The hoax was timed to coincide with the opening of the United Nations climate summit in Bali in an effort to expose the disproportionate influence of large corporations on the climate negotiations, and the greenwash these companies spin instead of taking any real initiative on fossil fuel reduction.
On November 9th 2007, Aberystwyth Arts Centre finished hosting the 2007
Shell Wildlife Photographer exhibition, organised by the Natural History
Museum and BBC Wildlife magazine. On November 10th, the Centre began
showing the counter-exhibition, 'Shell's Wild Lie', which ran until
November 17th. It will feature at the after-party for the London Climate
March on December 8th, then head to Bristol to be hosted by Bristol Rising
Tide when the Shell exhibition is also in the city.
15 or so folk from all over Carbon Town gathered today to sing a new hymn of hope to an oil-free future in the co-opted cathedral that is the Unnatural History Museum, where the heartbreakingly beautiful Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition has just opened. For a short film click here.
Here are the words we sang:
'there’s a bird dressed in black
there’s a world nearly cracked
there is me, there is you
what the hell shall we do?
It seems that stickers have started to appear on BP and Shell posters all around the London Underground.
Who could these mysterious sticker-people be????
Ig.
