On June 7th, two women blasted orange powder out of a fire extinguisher as the newlyweds left Chester Cathedral.

Sheila, 69, from Bristol, who worked as an NHS nurse for 50 years, was one of those who took action on Friday June 7th and who was booed by the crowds. Before taking action, she said: “What do we value most? The wealth of billionaires like the Duke of Westminster OR the lives of the billions who are being destroyed by the fossil fuel industry? Extreme wealth and the climate crisis are both symptoms of a broken system that is not serving most ordinary people.”

“I am asking my fellow citizens to peacefully, but determinedly, demand an emergency plan to stop the drilling and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. My grandchildren, all our children and all future generations’ lives are dependent on what we all do right now.

Polly, 73, a care worker from Norfolk was also arrested for taking action at the Duke of Westminster's wedding. She said: “Weddings are a time of coming together in celebration to make a commitment to the future. However, for countless millions around the world there is no future unless we come together to stop oil and gas. That’s why we are demanding that the next UK government work with other countries to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.”

The act of protest was described as "horrendous" and "just sad" by a bystander in a Yahoo news article. The flood of comments in angry opposition of these protests left on Just Stop Oil and other protest groups' social media posts is evidence that they are striking a nerve with the public. Are they hated because of it? Yes. Do their protests change people's minds?

In the Nature article "Increase in concerns about climate change following climate strikes and civil disobedience in Germany" by Johannes Brehm and Henri Gruhl published in April of 2024, the authors write:

"We find that concerns about climate change increase following protests, implying that these protests do not merely preach to the converted. Our results suggest that the analyzed protests have been an effective means to remind society of the consequences of climate change time and again. Our results further suggest that climate protests in Germany have been particularly effective when the population was not yet broadly sensitized to the consequences of climate change. Lastly, we do not find statistically significant evidence that salient climate protests negatively affect climate change concerns, irrespective of analyzing different protest tactics or subpopulations."

In other words, these kinds of resistance protests, carried out in Germany as they've been carried out in the UK and around the world, do not hurt the activist's cause, rather they help their cause: they change people's minds and stir up the public's conscience.

Support action takers like Sheila and Polly at http://juststopoil.org

"the world is about to be plunged into total hell by psychotic elites, unless we stop them - and so obviously the science only exists in this historical moment to support "activism" - actually revolution."

Roger Hallam, Co-Founder of Extinction Rebellion, via @RogerHallamCS21 on Twitter

23 Arrested on first day of "Summer of Heat" on Wallstreet, via @nychange on Twitter

"So if we just change the baseline from 1850 to 1970 we don't have to worry about +1.5C for another decade! Genius."

theawfultruth via @theawfultruther on Twitter

For the whole thread, go to @LeonSimons8 on Twitter, June 10th, 2024