A group of climate change protesters were dragged away as they tried to storm Shell’s shareholder meeting on Tuesday, according to reports.
During the meeting at the ExCel conference center in London, numerous protesters got up and stood in the way of Shell Chairman Andrew Mackenzie by yelling and singing, “Shut down Shell” and “Go to hell, Shell.”
Security guards then stopped and hauled the protesters out of the area, preventing them from rushing the stage.
The protestors claim that Shell and other fossil fuel companies are earning record profits at the expense of the environment. Among the activists were members of Greenpeace and the Extinction Rebellion.
Fossil fuel companies have posted record profits thanks to the Russia-Ukraine war. Shell, for instance, reported a record $39.9 billion profit for 2022.
“Shell is continuing to drill new oil and gas fields here in the UK and around the world in some of the most biodiverse regions in the Philippines and in the Niger Delta,” said 27-year-old Carina Manitius, 27, a protester from the group Fossil Free London.
“So we’re here to say, ‘Business as usual cannot continue and we’re going to shut you down,’” Manitius added.
In response to the demonstrations, Shell said that it respected people’s right to freedom of expression but that “protesters have shown that they are not interested in constructive engagement.”
This comes after a string of climate change-related demonstrations across the globe, most recently with the case of radicals vandalizing an iconic Edgar Degas sculpture in Washington, D.C.
The incident occurred last month when 53-year-old Joanna Smith and 54-year-old Tim Martin defaced Degas’ “Little Dancer” sculpture outside the National Gallery of Art.
The protestors smeared the work with paint in an apparent effort to raise awareness about climate change. Smith said, “We need our leaders to take serious action, to tell us the truth about what’s happening with the climate.”
The wave of climate protests prompted an outcry from government officials and art experts, who both condemned the practice.
“[Vandalism] alienates many people we need to bring into the fold. People who are natural allies in the climate battle but will draw negative associations with climate advocacy and activism from such acts,” said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann.
