The protest will take place tomorrow.
Extinction Rebellion are planning to pour 15 litres of fake blood at the entrance of the Burlington Clayton Hotel in Dublin on Wednesday (30 October), in protest of the Atlantic Ireland Conference and Exhibition which is being held there.
The environmental activists are targeting the conference, which is hosted by the Irish Shelf Petroleum Study Group, with the aim of pressuring the Irish government to maintain its Paris Agreement commitments. The group are part of the Petroleum Infrastructure Programme, which is funded by oil companies, and seeks to promote “hydrocarbon exploration and development activities.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, the group justified the action by saying: “Fifty years of deceit and deception and derailing regulations and drilling by the oil industry is enough. We have to fight for our future. Fight for our children.
“And grandchildren. And that means taking any action that will disrupt or stop oil exploration and will raise awareness with the public and the government of the need for urgent climate action.”
The group also laid out their demands in relation to tomorrow’s action.
- Revoke all oil and gas prospecting licences
- Enact the Climate Emergency Bill 2018, passed by Dáil Éireann
- Begin to act on the Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly, while asking them to carry out a more thorough assessment of the issues
- Cancel the proposal to build a fracked gas terminal at Shannon
In addition to the blood, activists have said they will also “hold a plaster cast model of the globe, which will be set alight to represent the artic on fire.”
They will also be holding a large fake drilling licence with a bloody handprint on it, “to call attention to the relationship the Irish Government has with the Petroleum industry.”
Extinction Rebellion in London have executed similar protests, using a fire engine to spray blood on the Exchequer Building.
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