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Eco-activists have smashed display cases filled with typhoon-wrecked belongings outside Shell’s headquarters in London.
Greenpeace activists built and then destroyed a protest art installation about climate loss displaying the once-cherished belongings of Filipino communities that were wrecked by climate-charged typhoons that have struck the Philippines.
The art piece was set up by a team of 77 protesters early on Wednesday morning and aimed to highlight how the oil and gas industry is fueling the climate crisis and intensifying extreme weather events.
The climate-wrecked possessions - including a sofa, television, shoes and a teddy bear - were exhibited in 19 display cases, encircling Shell’s HQ, with three places in front of the building’s main entrances.
Most display cases were flooded with water, leaving the items partially submerged.
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The glass display cases were then smashed by activists, allowing ‘flood’ waters submerging the typhoon-wrecked belongings to spill out.
Greenpeace said activists then swept broken glass into the doorways of the Shell Centre, before walking away and leaving all the belongings with Shell.
Commenting on the protest art installation Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner Maja Darlington said: “The world is near breaking point and it is oil and gas giants like Shell, who pocket tens of billions every year from burning fossil fuels that drive this climate chaos, that are to blame. It’s time they coughed up and paid their climate debts.
“As well as shining a spotlight on Shell’s culpability, this haunting piece of protest art - and the once-cherished dolls, shoes, sofa and rice cookers being displayed - highlights the very real devastation experienced by communities in the Philippines, one of the most climate-impacted countries on earth.
“Instead of allowing new planet-heating oil and gas fields with disregard for the devastation they are causing, the government should make fossil fuel companies, like Shell, stop drilling and start paying for the typhoons, floods, fires and droughts that they are fuelling around the world.”
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The Philippines experienced a record-breaking typhoon season last year, with six consecutive storm systems battering the country in less than a month, bringing wind speeds of over 50 metres per second and intense rainfall, causing floods to sweep through the country, Greenpeace said.
The climate group claimed that Shell produced ten times more carbon pollution than the Philippines has over the past 50 years.
Bon Gibalay, a youth leader from Bohol, Philippines, who attended the protest added: “For far too long communities like mine have weathered climate impact after climate impact, while companies like Shell continue to profit from fueling the climate crisis.
“By delivering these precious possessions, damaged and destroyed by typhoons supercharged by the climate crisis, from the Philippines directly by the doors of Shell, we demand accountability from major polluters and justice for all the loss and damage they have caused.”
