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Manchester Campaigners Look The Tiger in the Eye!

news release

Photo Opportunity:
Manchester Campaigners accompanied by a dancing tiger protest at Esso petrol station,
Ardwick Green, Manchester. Saturday May 18th, 12.30pm –2pm.

On Saturday May 18th, Manchester campaigners will be taking part in the second nationwide day of protest against Petrol Company Esso ‘the world’s number 1 global warming villain’. The campaigners, accompanied by dancing tigers, will be urging car drivers and the public not to ‘put a tiger in their tank’.

Hundreds of Esso garages around the country will be targeted, including practically every station in Greater Manchester by people concerned about global warming with the aim of drawing attention to Esso’s attempts to prevent a world agreement to tackle this problem from going ahead. Esso is the biggest corporation in the world and has worked hard over the last decade to block action to stop global warming. Pressure from Esso was one of the main reasons the United States pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol – the only international agreement to cut the pollution causing global warming. Esso denies the link between global warming and the burning of coal, oil and gas, and have even asked President Bush to get rid of the world’s top climate scientist!

In May the Stop Esso Campaign is one year old and last December organised the UK’s biggest ever global warming protest at more than 300 Esso stations round the country. The campaign has attracted hundreds of thousands of supporters who now refuse to fill up at Esso, and is damaging Esso’s public relations image.

Last September the world’s top climate scientists published a new report which predicts the earths temperature could rise by nearly 6 degrees centigrade by 2100, due to man-made pollution from burning oil, coal and gas. The global warming will change our weather, causing more droughts, floods and storms, and could cause sea levels to rise by nearly 1 metre.

Manchester ‘Stop-Esso’ Campaigner Lauren Walker said
“This is the biggest action ever taken against a single company, we will continue with the boycott until Esso admits that its’ core business is causing global warming and until Esso begins to invest in renewable alternatives. Those most affected by climate change are the world’s poorest people, those least able to defend themselves against flooding and drought. We must take action now to stop global warming”

ENDS

Contact Details for more information about the action
Lauren Walker (central Manchester) 0771 235 3170 (mobile)
Elanor Gordon (South Manchester) 0161 881 1738

Sharon Whigham (Stockport) 0161 494 7272
Martin Porter (East Manchester) 01457 851 587

National Information about Stop Esso Day
Cindy Baxter 020 7354 5708
www.stopesso.com

Notes for Editors

Esso is the UK brand name of ExxonMobil corporation
ExxonMobil fund multimillion dollar propaganda organisations to rubbish the case for action to stop global warming. ExxonMobil has run advertising campaigns in the US press condemning the Kyoto Protocol (the global treaty to cut greenhouse gases which cause global warming) and lobbied president Bush to pull out of the United Nations climate negotiations.

The Stop Esso Campaign was launched in May 2001, after President George Bush announced he was pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, the only international agreement on action to stop Global Warming. Stop Esso is a coalition of the environmental groups Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and People and Planet(student campaign network). Stop Esso day is supported by a number of other environmental groups and political parties including Transport 2000, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party On December 1st 2001, the Stop Esso campaign held the first ever UK-wide protest against Esso, with demonstrations at more that 300 Esso petrol stations around the country.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the world’s leading body of climate scientists – predict the earth’s average temperature could rise by 5.8 degrees C by 2001 as a result of human activity, and will change our weather (leading to an increase in extreme weather events) affect many habitats, and cause sea level rise of up to 1 metre.
ExxonMobil called on President Bush to get rid of the Chair of the IPCC, world famous climate scientist Bob Watson. The US then voted against Bob Watson at a meeting in Geneva in April 2002.

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