Is Just Stop Oil doing more harm than good?

Introduction to Just Stop Oil

Just Stop Oil defines itself as “a non-violent civil resistance group demanding the UK Government stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects” (Just Stop Oil, n.d.). They have been an active group since February 2022, however their mission began to gain attention when they protested by throwing tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’. The protest was carried out at London’s National Gallery on October 14th 2022, with an objective to bring attention to the cost-of-living crisis in the UK which, they believe, was impacted by the unsustainability of oil prices and, by extension, was responsible for millions of UK households suffering without energy. One of the protestors said “the cost-of-living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis; fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold and hungry families, they can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup” (Gayle, 2022b). The incident made national headlines and brought to light the public’s desperation for policy reform regarding the climate crisis.

More Problematic Protests

Despite the first few protests being shocking, they prompted media attention and brought the public’s awareness to the climate crisis. In addition, the methods carried out by Just Stop Oil were seen to be primarily peaceful and, at a minimum, harmless. This changed on Monday 7th November 2022 when a protest was carried out which shut down part of the M25, the motorway surrounding London. This protest continued for four days and resulted in 62 activists being arrested, with one woman, Jan Goodey, being arrested for six months due to “intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance” (Gayle, 2022a). Furthermore, a police officer was injured during the protests in a collision with two lorries at a rolling roadblock (Kingsley, 2022). Unlike previous protests which have been regarded by the public as justified, later protests were seen to be anarchic and dangerous. Many felt that closing the motorway caused unwarranted disruptions to the public. In addition, this type of protest was seen to be an attack on the people rather than the government, who should be the target of the Just Stop Oil protests.

Government’s Response to Just Stop Oil

After these later protests, Just Stop Oil lost support from political parties, with Conservative Leader and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling their disruptive protests “completely unacceptable” (McGrath, 2022) and Labour Leader Kier Stammer describing their latest demands of stopping the oil drilling in the North Sea as “contemptible” (Cooper, 2023). With no major government parties backing their cause and no legislation being reformed from their work, it’s no surprise they have declining support from the public. Their negative popular opinion and association with the climate change movement means that they have clouded the reputation of the environmental community. Some may even display contempt for climate healthy habits due to a distaste for Just Stop Oil.

What This Could Mean for the Climate Crisis

On the 14th February 2023, YouGov released a survey discussing Briton’s attitudes towards disruptive protests, specifically pertaining to Just Stop Oil’s recent protests. The study found that “the vast majority of Britons (78%) say [direct action] protesting hinders, rather than helps a cause – including 61% who believe it hinders ‘a lot’” (yougov.co.uk, n.d.). ‘Direct action’ protesting was defined in this survey as “defacing public property, blocking traffic or glueing people to roads or objects” (yougov.co.uk, n.d.). Here we see that Just Stop Oil’s abrasive activism is turning the British public away from the climate cause. Just Stop Oil has defaced the reputation for peaceful protesting and the mission of climate activism whilst deterring people from the environmental community as a whole. So, with declining support for the group and what they stand for, could Just Stop Oil be doing more harm for climate change than good?

Bibliography:

Cooper, C. (2023). Just Stop Oil approach ‘contemptible’ says Starmer. [online] POLITICO. Available at: https://www.politico.eu/article/just-stop-oil-approach-contemptible-says-starmer/ [Accessed 29 Oct. 2023].

Gayle, D. (2022a). Just Stop Oil activist jailed for six months for M25 disruption. The Guardian. [online] 29 Nov. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/29/just-stop-oil-activist-sentenced-to-six-months-in-prison-for-motorway-disruption [Accessed 29 Oct. 2023].

Gayle, D. (2022b). Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/14/just-stop-oil-activists-throw-soup-at-van-goghs-sunflowers.

Just Stop Oil (n.d.). Just Stop Oil – No More Oil and Gas. [online] Just Stop Oil. Available at: https://juststopoil.org [Accessed 29 Oct. 2023].

Just Stop Oil protests: Police officer hurt amid M25 disruption. (2022). BBC News. [online] 9 Nov. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63565808#:~:text=A%20police%20officer%20has%20been [Accessed 5 Nov. 2023].

Kingsley, T. (2022). Just Stop Oil says police officer injured in M25 lorry crash is ‘awful situation’. [online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/m25-protest-crash-just-stop-oil-police-b2221154.html [Accessed 5 Nov. 2023].

McGrath, D. (2022). Action against Just Stop Oil must be ‘within the law’, says London Mayor. [online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/action-rishi-sunak-sadiq-khan-government-london-b2237749.html [Accessed 5 Nov. 2023].

yougov.co.uk. (n.d.). The majority of the public believe protests rarely, if ever, make a difference | YouGov. [online] Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/45232-majority-public-believe-protests-rarely-if-ever-ma?redirect_from=%2Ftopics%2Fpolitics%2Farticles-reports%2F2023%2F02%2F14%2Fmajority-public-believe-protests-rarely-if-ever-ma [Accessed 29 Oct. 2023].