Just Stop Oil: Nonviolent Protests Get Record Sentences
Release Date: 07/26/2024
Too Enthusiastic? How to Find Your Place in Ocean Action
How To Protect The Ocean
Do you ever feel disconnected from ocean action? You sign the petition, you donate, you share the post, and you still don't feel like you're doing the work. Andrew knows the feeling. Fresh out of his undergrad, he emailed organization after organization offering to help for free, and mostly heard nothing back. In this episode he explains why that happens (it usually comes down to trust and how organizations take on volunteers), and how to get past it. He also retells the story of Lilly Woodbury from yesterday's episode: an environmental studies grad who kept hitting the same wall until she...
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Come for the Impact, Stay for the People: Inside Surfrider Canada
How To Protect The Ocean
Do you ever feel like ocean action is happening somewhere else? You sign the petition, maybe donate, but you're not really part of the work. Lilly Woodbury knows that feeling, and she found her way in by walking into a Surfrider meeting in Tofino in 2016. Lilly is the campaigns and storytelling director at Surfrider Foundation Canada. In this episode she tells Andrew how a small volunteer chapter helped Tofino and Ucluelet ban plastic straws, bags, cutlery and foam containers, and how Tofino became the first municipality in Canada to ban single-use plastic water bottles. Ten years in, she says...
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One Promise: How a Postcard Changed Behaviour for a Year
How To Protect The Ocean
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Why Saying "Fishing Is Bad" Backfires
How To Protect The Ocean
Picture a woman on a beach before sunrise, sorting the night's catch to feed her kids. Now picture a campaign poster that says "Stop eating fish." That poster just reached her. When conservation messages treat every fisher the same, the people with the smallest footprint stop coming to meetings, stop sharing catch data with scientists, and step out of the conversation entirely. Andrew walks through the Illuminating Hidden Harvests study from the FAO, Duke University and WorldFish, which found that small-scale fisheries land at least 40% of the world's wild catch and employ about 60 million...
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The Reef That Built Itself Back: Coral Recovery After Bleaching
How To Protect The Ocean
In 2023, a marine heat wave settled over Palmyra Atoll, a remote ring of coral islands about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, and stayed for more than half a year. Some of the reef’s most vibrant corals turned white. Joe Pollock of The Nature Conservancy, who monitors the reef, admitted he didn’t know if it would come back. Three years later, he put his face in the water and found the reef floor covered in baby corals. In this episode, I break down why Palmyra recovered when so many reefs struggle. It comes down to an intact food web: parrotfish that graze algae off the reef, a bubblegum-pink...
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Why Nobody Can Name a Marine Protected Area
How To Protect The Ocean
Quick test: name one marine protected area in your country. If you came up blank, you're in good company. When an aquarium in Durban, South Africa surveyed its visitors, fewer than one in five could name a single MPA. Andrew Lewin explains why that silence is one of the biggest threats MPAs face, because a place nobody can name is a place nobody defends when it gets weakened, shrunk or quietly reopened. This episode follows South Africa's long road from protecting 0.4% of its mainland ocean to 5.4%, and the communicators who realized the science and consultations were done but the public was...
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Can You Name One Marine Protected Area? Dr. Judy Mann-Lang on MPA Day
How To Protect The Ocean
Most people can't name a single marine protected area in their own country. Dr. Judy Mann-Lang found that out the hard way when she asked aquarium visitors to name one and they named the aquarium. With South Africa's new MPAs stalled on a minister's desk and oil and gas lobbyists in the room, she realized the ocean needed public support that didn't yet exist. That gap became MPA Day. Judy spent 30 years at uShaka Sea World in Durban, moving from education to CEO to conservation strategist, then five years with the Two Oceans Aquarium, earning a PhD on how effectively aquariums communicate...
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What the Sustainable Seafood Label Can’t See
How To Protect The Ocean
You bought the fish with the green check mark. Investigators with The Outlaw Ocean Project then checked the supply chains behind hundreds of seafood companies making sustainability claims, and more than half had a documented crime or concern somewhere upstream. In the final episode of our fish feed series, Andrew Lewin looks at what sustainable seafood labels cover and where their audits stop. Follow fishmeal from Western Sahara to ASC-certified sea bass farms in Türkiye that supply UK supermarkets, and from the Golden Lead plant in Gunjur, The Gambia, to a certified shrimp feed mill in...
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Ships Without License Plates: The Dark Fleet Behind Fishmeal
How To Protect The Ocean
In a single day in March 2024, Gambian navy officers arrested eight industrial trawlers. Seven were fishing in waters reserved for local canoes, four were using illegal nets, and every one had switched off its tracking beacon. That one patrol shows a problem playing out across the global ocean. About three in four industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, and many of the boats supplying the fishmeal that feeds farmed fish are among the hardest to see. In this episode of How to Protect the Ocean, Andrew Lewin follows the boats that catch the fish behind fish feed. He covers how...
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Whose Dinner Becomes Fish Feed?
How To Protect The Ocean
On a May morning in 2017, the people of Gunjur in The Gambia woke to find their lagoon had turned red, with dead fish on the surface. Investigators traced the pollution to a fishmeal plant up the road. In this episode, Andrew Lewin follows the feed from West African beaches to farmed salmon fillets in Europe and North America, building on The Outlaw Ocean Project’s five-year investigation into the fishmeal industry. Small, oily fish like sardinella and bonga are everyday protein in Senegal and The Gambia. Fishmeal plants buy them in unlimited volumes, outbid the women who have smoked and...
info_outlineThis episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast explores the extreme lengths some individuals are willing to go to protest climate change, including risking up to five years in jail. The host, Andrew Lewin, discusses the Just Stop Oil campaign in the UK, where activists are facing lengthy sentences for their advocacy. The episode raises questions about the future of activism and the potential consequences individuals may face for fighting against environmental harm. Additionally, Andrew mentions recent video podcasting initiatives and encourages listeners to engage with the content in both audio and video formats.
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The podcast episode delves into the legal challenges faced by activists in the UK who received four to five-year sentences for their involvement in protesting oil exploration as part of the Just Stop Oil campaign. The activists were found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for organizing direct action protests on the M25 over four days in November 2022. One activist received a five-year sentence, while four others received four-year sentences each, marking the longest sentences ever given in the UK for nonviolent protests.
The Just Stop Oil campaign aims to pressure the government to reconsider its support for oil exploration in the North Sea by oil companies. The activists engaged in various forms of protest, including disrupting traffic on major highways and participating in extreme actions like slowing down F1 races. While these actions were intended to raise awareness about climate change and oil exploration, they also resulted in legal consequences for the activists involved.
The episode sheds light on the dilemma faced by activists who are willing to take extreme measures to advocate for environmental causes. It raises questions about the effectiveness of such protests, the risks involved, and the potential consequences for individuals who choose to participate. The activists' willingness to accept lengthy sentences for their beliefs underscores the depth of their commitment to environmental activism and the urgency they feel in addressing climate change issues.
Overall, the episode highlights the challenges and sacrifices that activists may encounter in their efforts to bring about change and protect the environment. It prompts reflection on the balance between activism, legal consequences, and the pursuit of environmental conservation goals.
The activists involved in the Just Stop Oil campaign in the UK were found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for coordinating direct action protests on the M25 highway. Roger Hellam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker-Debreu, and Christina Gethin were convicted for their involvement in protests that disrupted the M25 over four days in November 2022.
Their actions led to record sentences, with Roger Hellam receiving a five-year sentence and the other four activists each receiving a four-year sentence. These sentences are the longest ever given in the UK for nonviolent protests, surpassing previous cases related to environmental activism.
The activists aimed to draw attention to the government's stance on oil exploration in the North Sea and the subsidies provided to oil companies. By disrupting major transportation routes like the M25, they sought to raise awareness about the environmental impact of continued oil drilling and its contribution to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.
While the activists believed their protests were necessary to prompt government action on climate change, the legal system viewed their actions as a public nuisance deserving significant penalties. The court's decision to impose lengthy sentences reflects the seriousness with which such disruptions are treated under the law.
The case highlights the complex dynamics between activism, environmental advocacy, and legal consequences. It raises questions about the boundaries of protest actions, the balance between civil disobedience and public safety, and the potential sacrifices individuals are willing to make for their cause. The activists' conviction serves as a cautionary tale for those considering engaging in similar forms of protest and underscores the challenges and risks associated with advocating for environmental change through direct action.
Environmental advocacy often involves individuals taking extreme actions to draw attention to pressing issues such as climate change and pollution. The podcast episode highlighted that some activists in the UK associated with the Just Stop Oil campaign faced legal repercussions for their protests. These activists were sentenced to four to five years in jail for their actions, marking one of the longest sentences ever given in the UK for nonviolent protests.
The episode emphasized the importance of considering the consequences and sacrifices involved in advocating for environmental causes. While the activists believed that their extreme actions were necessary to prompt government action on oil exploration in the North Sea, they ultimately faced severe legal consequences. This serves as a stark reminder that engaging in disruptive protests or actions can lead to significant personal sacrifices, including time away from families, careers, and freedom.
The podcast highlighted the dilemma faced by activists who feel compelled to take drastic measures to bring attention to urgent environmental issues. While their intentions may be noble, it is crucial to weigh the potential legal repercussions and societal impact of such actions. The activists' willingness to endure legal consequences for their cause underscores the depth of their commitment to environmental protection.
Ultimately, the episode underscored the complexity of environmental advocacy and the need for individuals to carefully consider the implications of their actions. While passion and dedication are essential in driving change, it is vital to assess the potential risks and sacrifices involved in advocating for environmental causes, especially when considering extreme measures that may lead to legal repercussions.