Damien Gayle

London

Environment Correspondent at The Guardian

Guardian environment correspondent, covering climate action across Europe and beyond. All opinions my own and no doubt totally wrong

Articles

What next for climate activism now Just Stop Oil is ‘hanging up the hi-vis’?

2 weeks ago | msn.com | Matthew Taylor |Damien Gayle

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What next for climate activism now Just Stop Oil is ‘hanging up the hi-vis’?

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Matthew Taylor |Damien Gayle

On the morning of Valentine’s Day 2022, Hannah Hunt stood at the gates of Downing Street to announce the start of a new kind of climate campaign, one that would eschew mere protest and instead move into “civil resistance”. Last week, three years and thousands of arrests later, in a neat tie-up exemplary of Just Stop Oil’s (JSO) love of media-savvy stunts, Hunt went to the same spot again – this time to announce the group would be “hanging up the hi-vis”.
UK Guardian: ‘Groundbreaking book argues climate crisis was sparked by colonization’ - Claims ‘climate breakdown is the mutant offspring of European scientific racism & colonialism’ - Climate Depot

3 weeks ago | climatedepot.com | Marc Morano |Damien Gayle

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/mar/28/dark-laboratory-groundbreaking-book-argues-climate-crisis-was-sparked-by-colonisationBy Damien GayleWe all think we know what is causing the breakdown of the planet’s climate: burning fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide, change the chemistry of the air and trap more heat from the sun, leading to rising temperatures.
Dark Laboratory: groundbreaking book argues climate crisis was sparked by colonisation

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Damien Gayle

We all think we know what is causing the breakdown of the planet’s climate: burning fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide, change the chemistry of the air and trap more heat from the sun, leading to rising temperatures. But Tao Leigh Goffe, an associate professor of Africana, Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at the City University of New York, wants us to visualise a far more specific cause: the shunting of a ship’s prow on to the sandbank of a paradise island in 1492.
UK carbon emissions fell by 4% in 2024, official figures show

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Damien Gayle

The UK’s carbon emissions fell by 4% last year, according to official figures. Provisional statistics published on Thursday by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) show UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions were 371m tonnes carbon equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2024, down from 385 MtCO2e in 2023. Emissions were 54% lower than they were in 1990, DESNZ said. Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, gave a guarded welcome to the announcement.
Just Stop Oil to ‘hang up the hi-vis’ after three years of climate action

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Damien Gayle

Supporters of the climate group Just Stop Oil have announced that, after three years of disruptive protests, they are ending their campaign of civil resistance. Hannah Hunt, whose speech on Valentine’s Day 2022 marked the beginning of the campaign, made the announcement outside Downing Street in London. She said: “Three years after bursting on the scene in a blaze of orange, at the end of April, the Just Stop Oil campaign will be hanging up the hi-vis.
West Papuan Indigenous people call for KitKat boycott over alleged ecocide

1 month ago | msn.com | Damien Gayle

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West Papuan Indigenous people call for KitKat boycott over alleged ecocide

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Damien Gayle

West Papua’s Indigenous people have called for a boycott of KitKat, Smarties and Aero chocolate, Oreo biscuits and Ritz crackers, and the cosmetics brands Pantene and Herbal Essences, over alleged ecocide in their territory. All are products that contain palm oil and are made, say the campaigners, by companies that source the ingredient directly from West Papua, which has been under Indonesian control since 1963 and where thousands of acres of rainforest are being cleared for agriculture.
Non-violent protesters should not have to disavow motives at trial, study says

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Damien Gayle

Protesters charged with non-violent offences should not be forced to disavow their motives when defending themselves at trial or seeking mitigation on their sentences, academics have said. In a challenge to the current approach to protest trials, a study argues courts should allow defendants to explain the reasons for their actions as a defence, and respect their integrity as a mitigating factor. What they ought not be expected to do, the authors say, is express remorse.
Green activists try to make citizen’s arrests of Thames Water executives

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Damien Gayle

Environmental activists have attempted citizen’s arrests of the chief executive and chief financial officer of Thames Water on suspicion of causing a causing a public nuisance. The activists accuse Chris Weston and Alastair Cochran of five to seven counts of the offence, which is regularly used against protesters, including illegal discharge of sewage, mismanagement of customer funds and operating unsafe infrastructure.