Environmentalists staged a wave of protests yesterday for Earth Day, pushing demands such as an immediate halt to European imports of Russian oil and gas, and an end to building fossil fuel infrastructure.
In Europe, campaigners in Berlin, Warsaw, Brussels and elsewhere were set for rallies outside German government or embassy buildings, where they were to hand out red-stained rubles to symbolize blood covering a currency they say is fueling climate change and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Germany is one of the EU states opposed to an embargo on Russian oil and gas for fear of damage to their economies.
Photo: EPA-EFE
About a dozen environmentalists in the Ukrainian city of Lviv also planned a protest. Parts of Lviv were hit this week by Russian missile strikes that killed seven people.
“When Germany continues buying gas and oil from Russia, it means that they are paying their money to construct new military machines, new bombs, which are killing Ukrainians,” Natalia Gozak, head of the EcoAction civil society group, said from Lviv.
Gozak said European politicians need to choose between an embargo’s economic “inconveniences” and the deaths of Ukrainians.
Ukrainian non-governmental organizations also planned to send a letter yesterday to the German parliament demanding the country stop buying Russian oil and gas.
“Germany is one of its main consumers and thus is the main sponsor of war in Ukraine,” said the letter, seen by Reuters. “You only need some political will and humaneness to impose a full embargo on Russian oil and gas.”
In the US, the Extinction Rebellion group blockaded a New York newspaper printing facility, where they called for more media coverage of climate change.
Youth protesters also gathered in locations including Bangkok and Stockholm, where Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined the school strike — a weekly protest she began as a solitary student in 2018 to call for urgent action to address climate change.
The protests aim to amplify demands for climate action on Earth Day, when people worldwide celebrate and mobilize in support of protecting the environment.
They come three weeks after a UN climate scientist report warned that there was little time left for reining in greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.
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