Stop them! Why I am occupying a Shell oil platform overseas

I am an activist born and raised in Xolobeni, in the Eastern Cape. This week, I was on a boat in the English Channel, supporting people who are occupying one of Shell’s oil and gas platforms. It’s on its way to the North Sea, so Shell can pump out up to 45,000 barrels of oil a day, for more than 20 years.

We are demanding that fossil fuel companies like Shell stop drilling, shift to renewable energy and start paying for the damage they’ve done.

Two more climbers from Germany and France have joined the four activists occupying Shell’s 34,000-ton oil platform. I boarded the vessel Merida, along with climate advocates from Africa, the Middle East and Europe, to challenge Shell even further. 

The oil giant has hit Greenpeace International with an injunction, threatening up to two years jail time for a peaceful protest. If they feel inconvenienced by this, imagine what it feels like to be on the frontlines of the climate breakdown they’re causing.

Why should you care?

Oil drilling is destroying the planet, but it’s also destroying communities living in areas near fossil fuel developments. If we do nothing, communities will be forced to leave their ancestral homes, with no compensation. And it doesn’t end there, our serene and protected biodiversity is also at stake.

For decades, oil giants such as Shell have been driving the climate devastation that is being felt by all of us, particularly countries in the Global South that have contributed the least emissions. Yet Shell continues expanding and making money at our expense. A perfect example is what they tried to do in the Wild Coast, close to where I live. 

When local communities and organisations caught wind of Shell’s plans to explore oil and gas in the ocean, we banded together to stop them. In an historic decision by South African courts, Shell’s right to conduct seismic blasting off the ecologically sensitive Wild Coast was revoked after taking the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to court for their reckless decision.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Activists celebrate big win for Wild Coast against Mantashe and Shell”

People power stopped Shell in South Africa. This time, we must stop companies like Shell from exploring for oil and gas elsewhere. Once and for all. Will you sign the petition demanding that Shell stops worsening the climate crisis and instead pays up for the climate damage they’ve caused?

Like my father used to say: “Humans are not more important than nature, we must look after nature because it looks after us — we can’t survive without nature.” 

Sign our petition, tell Shell to stop drilling, and start paying for the death and destruction they are causing worldwide!

DM/OBP

Nonhle Mbuthuma is one of the Greenpeace International activists taking action against Shell as it heads for a major oil and gas field in the North Sea.