‘We are living in a war declared by governments and companies on society, while those who denounce it end up in prison,’ says Inês Teles of Climáximo
5 supporters of Just Stop Oil, aged between 22 and 58, have been sentenced to 4-5 years in prison in the UK for speaking at a Zoom meeting about organising a political protest to pressure the UK government to immediately cancel all new oil and gas projects.
The British organisation recalls that the ‘Whole Truth Five’ are just ordinary people who recognised that ‘the price of their inaction in the face of destruction would be far greater than the legal consequences’. Once again, the judges did not allow the climate crisis to be present in court: the judge in the case considered ‘climate issues’ to be ‘irrelevant and inadmissible’ and mere ‘political opinions and beliefs’ – similar to the framework used to sentence 8 Climax supporters to 1.5 years’ probation for a political protest aimed at “warning society that governments and companies have their foot on the gas to take us to climate hell”.
Climáximo stands in solidarity with the organisation Just Stop Oil and the five people sentenced, who are ‘political prisoners of a war that fossil companies have declared on society’. The collective states that ‘not ironically, this sentence against climate activists was handed down in the same week that it was shown that the Earth’s temperatures have averaged above 1.5ºC of warming (the safety barrier outlined by the IPCC) consistently over the last 12 months. At the same time, this summer an extreme heatwave is ravaging southern Europe with hellish temperatures and forest fires – just look at neighbouring Spain, for example.’
Inês Teles, spokesperson for Climáximo, reminds us that ‘only people, with courage and determination, can stop the destruction caused to humanity and the planet by governments and companies in a coordinated and premeditated way. They have declared war on us, and the only option is to resist.’