There are no jobs on a dead planet.

A letter to the Sheffield Star.

Ray Cundy (26th July) is upset by the 5 Just Stop Oil protesters, jailed for 4 and 5 years because they “shove their ideology” on people and claims some climate scientists (who he can’t name) believe that climate change is a natural phenomenon. Climate does change over millennia but scientists are clear that since the Industrial Revolution, we have been heating our climate by adding Greenhouse gases like Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Nitrous Oxides to the atmosphere. 

Climate protesters are motivated by science, which tells us we are on a trajectory that will result in the death of billions of people¹ and the end of our civilisation. They are not fanatics as the judge called them. They simply want to save humanity. It is the politicians, oil bosses and big business that deserve the title “extremist” as they are leading us towards extinction. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a conservative body because it insists on the consensus of thousands of scientists before anything is published. Yet they are not listened to. The IPCC says we must retire existing fossil fuel infrastructure and cancel new projects as soon as possible.

Mr Cundy thinks “this country has done quite a bit towards climate control” but we are still adding to the problem. He is worried people will lose their jobs due to being held up by a protest. It would be an extremely harsh employer that fired somebody for this. On the other hand, there are no jobs on a dead planet. 

He says “Ordinary people are worried about feeding their families”. That is exactly what the climate protesters are worried about. Already we are seeing higher inflation in food prices (due to crop damage from floods and droughts) and insurance (due to increased claims from extreme weather). This will increase as the world continues to heat. 

I don’t agree with Just Stop Oil’s methods but I absolutely understand their motivation in carrying them out.

Yours sincerely

Graham Wroe

1.“IPCC Working Group 1 Report is a code red for humanity.  The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable:  greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres (2021)

Here is Ray Cundy’s letter

I have joined Rowan Williams, Chris Packham, many well-known celebrities, scientists and activists in signing this letter to the Attorney General.

Dear Attorney General, Richard Hermer KC,

This week has seen one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history. On Thursday 18th July, five people were given the highest sentences for nonviolent protest this country has ever seen. They were on trial for holding a zoom call, calling on others to take action to raise the alarm about the greatest threat humanity has ever faced: the climate and nature crises.

These sentences were handed down just days after the new government’s policy of no new licensing for oil and gas infrastructure was announced. In a world of sound, evidence-based governance, none of this needed to happen. With prisons at breaking point and the new government acting urgently to address this, how can these sentences be seen as anything other than insanity? The sentences, ranging from 4 to 5 years, are higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault. 

The defendants were denied the right to explain to a jury why they took the action they did, making a mockery of the right to a fair trial, with the judge saying that the Crown Prosecution’s agreed facts on climate collapse – including that the world has gone beyond 1.5 degrees for 12 consecutive months – were “neither here nor there”. These five brave, defiant people, like all nonviolent protestors, are fulfilling a necessary service by alerting the nation to the grave risk we all face, as scientists in their droves express their fear that many of the Earth’s systems are already at breaking point.

Immediately after the verdict, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders issued an extraordinary statement: “Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” 

According to the Office for National Statistics, 74% of people in the UK want urgent action on the climate crisis. Until a couple of weeks ago that majority was blocked by a Prime Minister who used climate – an existential threat – as a wedge issue in an election he lost. This new government has inherited a suite of recent legislation that conflicts with International Human Rights Law, and has put everyone’s right to peaceful protest at risk. The new government can address this now, as they have with fossil fuel licensing.

The world stands at a crossroads and so does our democracy. We write in support of Chris Packham and Dale Vince’s request for an urgent meeting with you, to be recorded so it is transparent to the public, to discuss the jailing of truth tellers and their silencing in court.

Sincerely, and with love for all humanity,