Homeless Polar Bears in Court

bristol | protests | news report Wednesday November 14, 2007 20:22 by Trevor - Bristol Rising Tide bristol at risingtide dot org dot uk

...and then go with friends to protest again against RBS

Four homeless polar bears appeared before Bristol Magistrates Court today 14th November. We were arrested after blockading the Royal Bank of Scotland corporate offices on Avon St. as part of the National Day of local action on 15th October called by Rising Tide. The day of action was to highlight the role of the Royal Bank of Scotland in financing the oil and gas industry resulting in climate chaos throughout the world.

Bear picket RBS

We blockaded the Royal Bank of Scotland's offices by dressing up as polar bears and laying on the ground across the vehicle entrance connected by concrete filled suitcases. (Polar bears and millions of people are being displaced from their homes by climate related degradation of the environment). After six and half hours of blockading we were cut out of suit cases and arrested.

Today we pleaded guilty to charges of 'wilfully obstructing the public highway with a non motor vehicle' (i.e. a suit case) and were given a conditional discharge and each told to pay £15 costs. In court, we wore T-shirts carrying the slogan 'RBS Guilty of Climate Crimes' and did have the opportunity to say why we had taken the action. After the court hearing, we and friends went to picket the RBS branch on Baldwin Street. We took the opportunity to chalk on the pavement 'RBS financing climate chaos', to hand out leaflets to customers and to have a bear's picnic. There is a rumour that there was a police van sitting outside the RBS offices half a mile away - possibly waiting for us to make an appearance. 'Sorry guys you were in the wrong place!'

RBS are the climate criminals and are guilty of:

1.Wilfully financing the continued extraction of fossil fuels while knowing that this will result in carbon emissions that are causing climate change.

2.As a result, causing the degradation of the world’s environment to the point where:
•millions of people can no longer sustain their lives in their homelands and so making them environmental refugees
•habitats are being destroyed so that species (such as polar bears) are being pushed towards extinction

3.Conspiring with others, including oil and gas companies (such as Shell and Exxon) and national governments (such as Nigeria, Russia, Georgia, Canada, and UK) in devising projects for the extraction, transportation and refinement of fossil fuels with little regard to the environmental damage and social injustice these projects will cause.

Polar bear seen in RBS branch