Direct action group smashes all front windows at Schlumberger Cambridge
Climate activists from the direct action group This Is Not a Drill smashed all the front windows at Schlumberger’s fossil fuel research centre on the University of Cambridge's West Site overnight.
The group reported its actions on the direct action website This Is Not a Drill, saying they took place in reaction to the news that “over a third of Pakistan had been flooded due to climate change caused by oil and gas extraction”. Schlumberger, the world’s biggest fossil fuel services company and the largest provider of oil and gas technology to fossil fuel companies in the world, has for years been a target of climate action. The Cambridge research centre is one of five around the world and is targeted because of its strategic global importance.
One participant at the Madingley Road site, who did not give their name, said: “Schlumberger is the home of oil and gas in Cambridge. They’re the biggest offshore drilling company in the world and do untold harm to us. They have 36,000 fossil fuel technology patents, work with every single major oil company, and have a test oil drill in their Cambridge research centre connected to huge tanks of mud to simulate drilling the seabed.
“Their well-paid scientists and engineers could absolutely find jobs in renewables or other positive sectors if they wanted to, but it seems they just don’t care that their work kills people or that their employer steals and destroys land and water from indigenous people. The company is evil. They have to go.”
Another anonymous activist said: “We’re so tired from the anger and despair we feel towards the University of Cambridge, our government, and other institutions that are supposed to be doing good but constantly and by default do the opposite. They pay for, host, and promote these awful companies who murder our friends in the Global South and destroy the planet simply to make money.
“We’re tired of trying again and again to make positive change in a system designed to ignore us while rich companies, insulated for now from the carnage, laugh at our suffering. We’re done blocking roads and we’re done chanting.
“We’ve come to disarm fossil fuel companies wherever we find them and we call anyone else who can’t stand the death and indifference any longer to join us. Pick your target – there are plenty in Cambridge and thousands more around the UK. Together, decentralised, we can dismantle the fossil fuel empire that cares more about its executives’ private jets than it does about our lives.”
The website has reported numerous actions since it launched in July, including at the BP Institute, Aveva, and the University of Cambridge’s Chemistry and Maths departments due to their research links and sponsorship deals with BP, Shell, Schlumberger, and several arms companies. The Schlumberger facility has long been a target for climate campaigners, with concerns raised, petitions signed and marches staged, including yesterday (October 9).
This Is Not a Drill describes itself as an ‘action reporting site’ – it does not know about the actions reported to it before they happen and it doesn’t know who carries them out. It values anonymity highly and “implores” anyone who wants to take action against fossil fuels to do so in a way that doesn’t harm any person or animal.
Its website states that “fossil fuel companies must be disarmed” alongside a recent famous quote from António Guterres, secretary-general of the UN: “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”
The University of Cambridge was approached for comment.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “We are currently on the scene and an investigation is ongoing.”
