AntiWar@Laurier blockades local Shell station on “Fossil Fools Day.”

Waterloo - Just before rush hour today, student and community activists from AntiWar@Laurier (AW@L) blockaded the Shell gas station at the corner of Westmount Road North and Father David Bauer Drive.  AW@L’s “Climate Change Containment Unit” deployed to address the gross violation of the environment constituted by the planned increase in production of the Albertan oil sands, by shutting down Shell’s primary outlet in Waterloo.  Shell is a leading offender with regard to profiteering from climate change causing activities, especially in the tar sands.

After the Containment Unit had closed the station, a crowd of activists enforced a blockade with large banners reading: “Stop Fueling War and Climate Change,” “No Tomfuelery, No Tar Sands,” and “No War, No Warming.”  However, the Containment Unit and their supporters were “attacked” by a group of Shell Executives in business suits wielding hockey sticks.  The Executives destroyed a large model of the earth that had been erected at the scene by activists.  The destruction of the world at the hands of Shell Executives seemed to embody their greed and ruthless disregard for the planet.  While both sides have pledged that there will be no violence, a heated “tug of war” has broken out between the Executives and the Climate Change Containment Unit.  They seem to be fighting over what is left of the model earth that was brought to the scene by the demonstrators from AW@L.  Containment Unit Agent Winnie Small said that, “the Executives at Shell are destroying the world and fueling war and climate change as they try to extract every last drop of oil, putting profit before the planet.”  Today’s action is part of the international “Fossil Fools Day” campaign.

Fossil Fools Day started a few years ago, and the goal is simple: to identify, mock, disrupt and make fun of corporations that are foolish about climate change and continuing to use and develop fossil fuels. “Truly, there is nothing more foolish than the whole tar sands development” claims Laurier student Laird Herbert, adding “we aim to make that point very clearly.”

AW@L members displayed signs exposing the company’s involvement in the development of the tar sands, and the negative environmental and social problems associated with such development. Some of the consequences of tar sands production include a major contribution to global climate change, intrusion on indigenous land, poisoning of lakes and rivers, the “sucking in” of skilled labour from around the country into working for non-renewable, low efficiency energy production and major contribution to an unsustainable, war producing economy and way of life.

AW@L is a student activist group in the Kitchener-Waterloo community and is an official chapter of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). Adam Lewis, a member of the group, states that “the tar sands are not an environmentally viable option to meet Canada’s energy needs and serve only as a means of further environmental destruction and increased profits for the companies that continually abuse the earth and marginalized communities around the world.”

Fossil Fools Day is an International Day of Action, with protests happening in Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, China, Africa and Europe.

For more info about Today’s action, contact:

Laird Herbert (226) 220-1616
Send email enquiries to antiwar@peaceculture.org.
For more info about AW@L visit www.peaceculture.org
For more info about Fossil Fools Day visit www.ran.org, www.energyactioncoalition.org, and www.fossilfoolsdayofaction.org