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Of Land & Power – energy before and after neoliberalism
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Nov 7, 2014
The mass of Ben Lui rises up. So much higher than all those ridges around it. We can make out our planned line of ascent up Alt Coire Ghaothaich, the mare’s tail of white water plunging down the mountainside. We cross Alt an Rund and begin the climb from 1,150 feet to the summit...
Bill McKibben slams Shell sponsorship at elite climate conference #CHclimate
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Nov 4, 2014
350.org’s Bill McKibben just gave a keynote address at Chatham House’s annual conference on climate change. Bill didn’t know it when he agreed to talk at the conference, but its headline sponsor is Shell. Here is what Bill said to a room full of “senior officials from businesses, government, NGO’s and academic institutions”: Shell is...
Bill McKibben slams Shell sponsorship at Chatham House keynote on climate
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Nov 4, 2014
More images available on request Contact: [email protected] — @platformlondon Speaking at the annual Chatham House climate change conference, keynote speaker Bill McKibben of 350.org said: I didn’t know Shell was sponsoring this conference when I agreed to do it, but I’m glad for the chance to say in public that Shell is among the most...
Shell’s climate marketing tricks
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Nov 3, 2014
Have you seen all these new Shell ads? Billboards on high streets and tube stations celebrate Shell as a champion of climate action and “keeping-the-lights-on”. When she’s your age What’s the way to keep the lights on into 2050? Burn the rest of the world’s fossil fuels, of course. And look, she’s even got a...
A journey to ‘communities of the ideal’
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Oct 22, 2014
A while back James Marriott made a journey to two communities – each of which tries to approach an ideal. This is his reflection on the experience. The first, La R.o.n.c.e in the Morbihan region of Brittany, is being established on an abandoned farm by six activists and artist-activists, two of whom, John Jordan and...
Exciting week for ending the licence to spill
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Oct 10, 2014
Why do BP and Shell need cultural institutions (Tate, British Museum, National Portrait Gallery), consumer brands (Lego, Waitrose) and universities? The simple answer is so that the rest of us think we need them. As the Tate’s lawyer explained BP’s sponsorship, if they didn’t think they were getting something out of it, they wouldn’t do...
Offshore: Iran, BP, Algeria & Boris Island
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Oct 9, 2014
“No you can’t get through down there. They’ve got a full set of anti-terrorist police. Machine guns and all. They’ll jump out at you if you go beyond that fence. Mind you, it helps keep the crime down in the village”. The tall man with white hair straggling out from under his black hat and...
BP and #IndyRef – the need to constrain corporate influence in our democracy
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Sep 26, 2014
Around about 3.00 am on the morning of Friday 19th September, whilst anxiously watching the results come in on the Scottish Independence Referendum, we heard one of the commentators on STV ‘Scotland Decides’ explain his view that after months of the politicians being unable to help the voters make their decision, ‘business leaders’ had stepped...
Possess the Bay! Taking control of the Oil Road in Falmouth
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Aug 29, 2014
Platform was invited to present to the Geohack workshops that are part of the Fascinatecon conference in Falmouth this week. A version of the following was given via skype by James Marriott to an audience of ‘artists, gamers, historians, performance-makers, seafarers, landlubbers, the flooded and the landlocked’ in the Performance Centre, Penryn Campus, University of...
‘Picture This’ report extract – BP’s ongoing Gulf Coast disaster & ‘artful dodging’
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Jul 1, 2014
Last week we published a critical new report ‘Picture This – A Portrait of 25 years of BP Sponsorship‘, timed with the opening of the National Portrait Gallery London’s new ‘BP Portrait Award’ exhibition. In a series of blogs, we are featuring extracts from the report. Today’s blog shares devastating testimony and analysis from two...
Art Not Oil’s week of action on NPG’s ‘BP Portrait Award’
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Jun 30, 2014
Have a look at the ‘Storify’ to see some of the actions, reactions and impacts that happened around the National Portrait Gallery’s opening of this year’s BP Portrait Award. The main events were… On Saturday – ‘Portraits in Oil‘ performance-intervention at the NPG by Art Not Oil Coalition On Wednesday (day of the exhibition’s press...
New report ‘Picture This’ on the BP Portrait Award – extract on National Portrait Gallery
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Jun 25, 2014
Our new report Picture This – A Portrait of 25 years of BP sponsorship is in 5 parts. Each part addresses a different aspect of the issue, and should cause deep concern in any institution’s corporate sponsorship department that wants to operate ethically. Even though its publication is triggered by the 2014 BP Portrait Award...
