Scientists, linked to the Scientists for Extinction Rebellion, boarded the department building at 1 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, shortly after 11 a.m. Doctors and health professionals organized a bait action to give them space to get to their place. The action came a week after the government announced a new energy strategy that promised to continue exploiting North Sea oil and gas, failed to set land-based wind targets and gave nuclear power a central role. Dr Aaron Thierry, a 36-year-old environmentalist with his hand stuck in the BEIS window, said: “I wish I was not really here, but I am also very happy to be here with all these scientists who know what is right. “Last week, the world’s scientists published a report that sounded the last alarm for the planet. He said we need to stop our fossil fuel addiction now. The UK government’s response a few days later was to announce that it would step up oil and gas exploration with the intention of extracting the last drop. “Science tells us that this approach will doom our cultures to ruin. We will not stay by our side and let it happen. “Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades, but they have been ignored by governments.” Richard Ecclestone, a former Devon and Cornwall police inspector who acted as a legal observer of the XR protest, said the scientists had decided on the action because of the energy strategy. “They did this action together to draw the attention of the business department, to remind them what science is,” he said. “They have taken excerpts from recent scientific reports that say there is solid evidence now that we can no longer continue to search and exploit oil and gas reserves or that this would mean death.” Dr Charlie Gardner, a 43-year-old conservation scientist and associate professor at the University of Kent, said: “There are people who are very rich and powerful from the way the world is shaped now and they do not want that to change, they do not want to release carbon emissions because that will limit their opportunity to make money from fossil fuels. “As a result, we have government departments making decisions that will lead us to disaster, and as a scientist I know what the consequences are, I can see it coming and I can not be passive, I can not just let it happen. I have to act. “ A BEIS spokesman said: “We are gradually reducing the demand for oil and gas, but we can not have a cliff closing our domestic source overnight. Doing so would jeopardize our energy security, British jobs and industries and would simply increase foreign imports, not reduce demand. “Our British energy security strategy sets out a long-term plan to boost cheap renewables as we move away from expensive fossil fuels.” The scientists’ protest was part of a week of political disobedience by XR in London. The environmental protest group, which called on supporters to take a week off to take part, launched its “uprising” on Saturday with blockades in the West End and on Sunday, supporters closed bridges over the Thames. Supporters of the group gathered in Hyde Park on Wednesday morning. More protests were expected.
