People vs Oil rise in 25+ cities to sound the alarm on the global climate emergency

 On 31 July, people in more than 25 cities are publicly holding the oil industry accountable for causing climate anxiety, climate breakdown, climate disaster, and climate emergency in communities around the world. From the Philippines to Greece, from Russia to Brazil and from Canada to New Zealand people are rising because they have been harmed by oil industry or to show solidarity with those already harmed.

Here are some of the posters that are now circulating in reclaimed bus shelters and on walls outside and inside public spaces.
The photos used in the posters (with the exception of oil spill images) represent generic images of what climate change is predicted to bring: more and more severe forest fires, rainfall becoming more extreme, hurricanes and cyclones becoming more intense with increased rainfall and extreme temperatures becoming more frequent.

“Climate Emergency: proudly brought to you by Chevron”

Portugal  forest fire (2003): Fireman walking down burnt hillside. Portugal declared a national disaster after the worst forest fires in more than two decades. To get an overview of forest fires more than a decade later see this map. 

“Climate Emergency: proudly brought to you by OMV”

New Jersey, US floods (2012): A building floats near the New Jersey shore in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The death toll in the USA was 117 and the hurricane damaged 200,000 homes. 

“Climate crisis: thanks to Total”

Brazil drought (2005):  A severe drought classified as once in 100 year type of event took place both in 2005 & 2010. In addition to the damage to forests and food crops, droughts also cause health impacts. These unusual Amazon drought events are predicted to increase in future as sea surface temperatures rise due to anthropogenically forced CC. 

“Climate emergency: thanks to Suncor”

Southern California, US fire (2013): A man on a rooftop looks at approaching flames as the Springs fire continues to grow on May 3, 2013 near Camarillo, California. Since the early 1970s, California wildfires have increased in size by eight times and the annual burned area has grown by nearly 500%. [ CNN quotes scientific Source ]. 

“Climate grief: proudly brought to you by Shell”

Philippines Typhoon Hagupit (2014): A mother holds her child as other children climb a badly damaged house in Taft, Eastern Samar, Philippines. Some 1.3 million people remained in evacuation centers, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Increase typhoon intensity is predicted as surface sea temperature increase. 

“Oil kills the climate: no new oil fields Gazprom Neft”

Russia oil spill in Sakhalin Region (2015): Gannets, coastline sea birds, covered with oil. On Saturday 28 November, the tanker “Nadezhda” containing hundreds of tons of oil, ran aground near the town of Nevelsk, on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East. *Nadezhda, owned by Russian company DV Akvatoria

When it comes to oil spills there is data of 10.000 spills by oil tankers in 2018 alone. Information about which company is responsible for each is not readily available.  We hold the industry at large responsible for this neglect.  
These posters spread from New Zealand to Brazil make a link between the historic culpability of global oil companies as polluters and their current actions to lobby and block climate policy that continue to add fuel to the fire of climate breakdown. While scientists are still very cautious about linking single events to climate breakdown, it is known that climate change does make extreme weather more frequent and more intense. That’s why we need to be the generation that ends oil. Join us. 
Want to learn more?
 This map by Carbon Brief has brought together studies that help attribute extreme weather events to climate change. These videos  provides a good summary on why hurricanes are  getting wetter (VOX) because of climate change and heatwaves are getting more extreme (CBS). The scientific yearly reports from BAMS are a good resource to understand some of the complexities behind weather events and climate breakdown.