Greenpeace activists dressed as tigers protest at the entrance of France's largest oil refinery owned by Esso.
Amsterdam - Protestors locked onto fuel pumps in Canada,
activists in tiger suits led the Giro D'Italia bicycle race in
Luxembourg and environmentalists circulated a damning report in New
Zealand as the global campaign to Stop Exxon escalated today.
Today is second day of an international week of action against
the world's biggest oil company, Exxon, to protest against its
continued interference in both international and US climate policy.
Exxon, which is also marketed as Esso and Mobil globally, has spent
millions of dollars sabotaging the Kyoto Protocol on climate
change. In 1999, Exxon was the fifth-biggest lobbyist in
Washington, exceeded only by tobacco and drug companies.
In Toronto, Canada, Greenpeace activists in locked themselves to
fuel pumps at Esso stations while people in George Bush masks urged
motorists to buy gas elsewhere. Similar protests were also held at
Esso stations in Montreal and Vancouver with one clear message:
Don't Buy Esso.
"Esso is going to be held accountable for sabotaging Kyoto and
ignoring the science of climate change," said Greenpeace's Stop
Esso campaigner in Canada, Jennifer Storey. "Esso says don't ratify
Kyoto. We say if you need gas, don't buy Esso."
Meanwhile in New Zealand Greenpeace launched "A Decade of Dirty
Tricks", the report outlining how Exxon has undermined United
States and international climate change policy.
"ExxonMobil's attempts to wreck the Kyoto Protocol using front
groups and climate sceptics highlights the enormous influence oil
companies have on climate change policy," said Robbie Kelvin,
Greenpeace climate campaigner in New Zealand.
"The United States withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol as a
result of industry pressure endangers the global treaty designed to
deal with climate change."
In Luxembourg, activists dressed as tigers - the Esso corporate
symbol - rode ahead of the opening of the famous Giro D'Italia
bicycle race in Esch-sur-Alzette. At the finish line they flew a
zeppelin with a five-metre banner reading "Stop Esso" over the
crowd.
"Exxon denies the link between climate change and fossil fuels,
it doesn't spend a cent of its billion dollar profits on renewable
energy and actively seeks to discredit climate science," said
Stephanie Tunmore, Greenpeace International climate campaigner.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a
group made up of thousands of the world's leading scientists and
scientific bodies, has found that global warming is caused by
humans, it will have severe environmental and health impacts if
left unchecked, and it is getting worse.
"People around the world are joining this campaign because they
are sick of big business manipulating politics and environmental
policy. They are not powerless and they are taking action."