DoomsdaysCW<p>And how much economic damage is from climate change and pollution from <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FossilFuels" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FossilFuels</span></a>? <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BigOil" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BigOil</span></a> is the real criminal here!</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateProtesters" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateProtesters</span></a> are taking action against Big Oil. UK courts are handing them prison terms akin to rapists and thieves </p><p>By Kara Fox, CNN<br>September 14, 2024</p><p>London CNN — "As <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RightWing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RightWing</span></a> rioters attacked communities with <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racist</span></a> violence across parts of the UK last month, 22-year-old <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateActivist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateActivist</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CressieGethin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CressieGethin</span></a> sat in a prison cell.</p><p>"Her crime? Organizing a disruptive protest against new government-granted licenses to drill for oil — a planet-heating <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FossilFuel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FossilFuel</span></a> — in the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NorthSea" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NorthSea</span></a>.</p><p>"In late July, a London court found <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Gethin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gethin</span></a> and four other members of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JustStopOil" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>JustStopOil</span></a> activist group guilty of 'conspiring intentionally to cause a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PublicNuisance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PublicNuisance</span></a>,' after recruiting protesters to climb structures along the M25 — a major ring road around London — bringing traffic to a standstill in parts over four days in November 2022.</p><p>"Prosecutors alleged that the protests, organized over a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ZoomCall" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ZoomCall</span></a>, disrupted more than 700,000 drivers, caused economic damage of over £760,000 ($980,000) and racked up £1 million ($1.3m) in policing costs. </p><p>"Now Gethin and three others — Louise Lancaster, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DanielShaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DanielShaw</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LuciaWhittakerDeAbreu" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LuciaWhittakerDeAbreu</span></a>, who planned the disruption on the call — are serving four-year jail terms, while Just Stop Oil co-founder <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RogerHallam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RogerHallam</span></a> was given five years. All are appealing.</p><p>"The sentences are believed to be the longest in the UK’s history for <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nonviolent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nonviolent</span></a> protest and were delivered under two new controversial laws that supercharged <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/policing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>policing</span></a> powers to crack down on disruptive protests, even when they are peaceful.</p><p>"They place the act of planning a 'public nuisance' event, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, on a similar footing as <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ViolentCrimes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ViolentCrimes</span></a> like robbery, for which punishments range from community service to 12 years’ jail, or rape, which is four to 19 years.</p><p>"The judge — who in court referred to the activists as '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/extremists" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>extremists</span></a>' — justified the long jail terms because all five activists had previously been convicted of one or more offenses in relation to direct action protest. Each were on bail for another set of proceedings when the Zoom call took place. He also noted people missed important doctor’s visits and funerals because of the protest.</p><p>"But activists like Gethin say their demonstrations are proportionate to the problem at hand — a rapidly warming world that threatens to transform life as we know it, through deadly <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ExtremeWeather" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ExtremeWeather</span></a> events and by pushing <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ecosystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ecosystems</span></a> to their brinks. They are now battling the bolstered powers of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/police" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>police</span></a> and courts to get their point across.</p><p>“'A very harsh sentence like this doesn’t make sense morally or legally — but it does make sense politically,' Gethin told CNN in a handwritten letter from HMP Bronzefield, a women’s prison just south of London’s Heathrow Airport.</p><p>"The laws have drawn criticism from the UN’s special rapporteur on <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalDefenders" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EnvironmentalDefenders</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MichaelForst" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MichaelForst</span></a>, who said not only do they criminalize peaceful protest, but they are being enforced in 'punitive and repressive' ways."</p><p>Read more:<br><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/14/climate/uk-climate-protests-policing-laws-prison-intl/index.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">cnn.com/2024/09/14/climate/uk-</span><span class="invisible">climate-protests-policing-laws-prison-intl/index.html</span></a></p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BigOilAndGas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BigOilAndGas</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateActivists" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateActivists</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateProtest" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateProtest</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SLAPPs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SLAPPs</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CorporateColonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CorporateColonialism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterDefenders" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WaterDefenders</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateDefenders" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateDefenders</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalActivists" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EnvironmentalActivists</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SilencingDissent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SilencingDissent</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SLAPPs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SLAPPs</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateActivists" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateActivists</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CorporateColonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CorporateColonialism</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EarthDefenders" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EarthDefenders</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CriminalizingDissent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CriminalizingDissent</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FreeSpeech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FreeSpeech</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RightToProtest" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RightToProtest</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BiodiversityNecessityDefense" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BiodiversityNecessityDefense</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EarthDefenders" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EarthDefenders</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SLAPPs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SLAPPs</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fascism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CivilDisobedience" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CivilDisobedience</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Activism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Activism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateStrike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateStrike</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HumanRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HumanRights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Article20" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Article20</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/2023PublicOrderAct" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>2023PublicOrderAct</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateNecessityDefense" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateNecessityDefense</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Corporatocracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Corporatocracy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CorporateFascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CorporateFascism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateCrisis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateCrisis</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateCatastrophe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateCatastrophe</span></a></p>