MONDAY 14 OCT 2019 12:17 PM

CLIMATE CRISIS PROTESTS VIE FOR ATTENTION

Environmental protesters took very different approaches today to highlighting the climate crisis, with Extinction Rebellion (XR) once again dominating the news agenda.

Greenpeace activists boarded two oil platforms in Shell’s Brent field earlier today in a peaceful protest against the company’s plans for its decommissioned rigs. Campaigners scaled Brent Alpha and Bravo and hung banners saying ‘Shell, clean up your mess!’ and ‘Stop Ocean Pollution’. Greenpeace claimed that Shell plans to “leave thousands of tonnes of hazardous oily sludge in the North Sea”.

The protest was covered on the BBC website and picked up Reuters, Bloomberg and local press, but XR took the lion’s share of today’s news headlines with another day of disruption, this time in London’s financial district targeting “the system bankrolling the environmental crisis”, it said. Tomorrow the group plans to block roads outside MI5. Over 1400 arrests have been made in London since action began a week ago.

Tonight’s CommsChat, Communicate’s weekly Twitter debate, will be devoted to how XR is dominating environmental comms. Is it shaping the agenda or shouting so loudly that others can’t make their voices heard?

Have your say tonight at 8pm @CommsChat