After how many years of working as a pilot, you decided to quit this job and why?
I started training as an airline pilot in January 2018 in New Zealand where my training school was based. In that time I started to become more aware of the climate and nature crisis through documentaries like Planet Earth 2 and Blue Planet 2 by David Attenborough. These inspired me to change my personal actions and impact, so I tried to use as little plastic as possible by buying from organic farmers markets and zero waste shops. I also transitioned to being vegan, although I’ll talk more about that later on.
However, I noticed that no one around me was changing and that the climate crisis was still worsening. Bigger, more systemic changes were clearly needed. When I returned from New Zealand in March 2019, Extinction Rebellion (XR) were just starting up and they held their April Rebellion a month later.
I heard about them on the radio that they were occupying bridges and key locations in London demanding the government “tell the truth” about the climate crisis, transition to a zero carbon economy by 2025 and hold nationwide Citizens’ Assemblies to decide how we address the crisis. This, to me, sounded like exactly what we needed. I had never been to a protest before, but I decided to take a leap of faith and join a march in London. I was immediately taken aback by the love and the joy of the protest. It was so different to how the radio had portrayed them as “dogooders”, “hippies”, “terrorists”. These were people from all walks of life coming together to demand a fairer world. I was hooked.
But there was still the fact that I was about to embark on a career in a fossil fuel-heavy industry.
I qualified as an airline pilot in November 2019 and moved to London. Back then, easyJet were making grand statements that they were the first carbon-neutral airline in the world because they were offsetting 100% of their emissions. I was identified as someone in the airline who cared about climate change and was recruited to help write the passenger announcement that would be played to passengers when they landed that spoke about our carbon neutrality. Back then, I believed it! I look back in horror now that I helped spread greenwash to easyJet passengers.
A pivotal moment in my life was going to my first ever XR meeting in Croydon where I lived. We were sitting in a circle in the backroom of a cafe introducing ourselves, when out of the blue the man sitting next to me introduced himself as Todd Smith and that he was a pilot for Thomas Cook. I was shocked! What are the chances of two pilots meeting in an XR meeting? I might have been more likely to win the lottery! I introduced myself as a pilot for easyJet and our paths collided. It felt like such a relief to meet someone who felt the same way as me and came from the same industry.
The pandemic grounded the industry and me personally for 13 months. In that time, I met Finlay Asher, an aerospace engineer who had worked for Rolls Royce on future aerospace technology. He had set up his own green working group in the company to challenge their company’s narrative on climate. Todd and Finlay formed what at that time was called “Destination 1.5” (a reference to the Paris Agreement) and later became Safe Landing.
We initially set up some zoom calls during lockdown to meet other climate-conscious aviation workers and share our experiences of juggling our love for aviation with our love for the planet.
Todd Smith, Finlay Asher and George Hibberd
Through these zoom meetings and doing my own research I quickly discovered that what easyJet and the rest of the aviation industry was saying about the climate crisis was complete ‘greenwash’, a completely new term to me. I had clearly wanted to believe what easyJet was saying. Why wouldn’t I? I didn’t know any better, but I’d also worked my entire life to become a pilot, I had finally achieved that so I was hardly going to question what they were saying about the climate crisis. It would mean questioning my life’s purpose and childhood dream.
But the science is the science. It’s impossible to ignore.
And so, my illusion of green aviation quickly shattered and I was left questioning my life’s decisions. I developed a deep unease and anxiety about my career path and the state of the climate crisis. My relationship with my partner at the time started to collapse as I realised that I didn’t want to bring a child into this uncertain and terrifying new world. I started counseling after my relationship broke down for what I then learned was eco anxiety or climate anxiety after a recommendation from Todd. It felt like such a relief to finally understand what I was feeling, that it was a rational response to an existential threat and that I wasn’t going crazy. We started work on how I felt about juggling the two worlds of flying and climate activism.
At that time, I wanted to continue flying. I saw no reason why I should have to quit my dream job. Shouldn’t I be able to try to create change whilst still working in the industry? I returned to flying after lockdown in April 2021 and started to talk to colleagues about the climate crisis. After all, us pilots spend up to 12 hours with just one other person in the flight deck on autopilot. You end up having all sorts of conversations!
I started to challenge my company’s narrative on the climate on their intranet for staff called “Workplace”. They had a sustainability page where they posted mostly greenwash articles. I’d comment underneath most of them saying things like “This is really interesting, but the climate scientists are saying… so, how does that fit with what you’re saying?”. All seemed well and I thought I was juggling the two worlds very well.
That was until I sat in our annual security course that all airport staff have to attend. They spend the session outlining the top threats to the industry. Usually, at the top is “radical religious fundamentalism” or terrorism. But, for the first time, they added in a new threat second to that – environmental activists. They flashed up on screen an image of the blind paralympian, James Brown, who had climbed on top of a plane at London City Airport in protest of aviation’s impact on the climate. The presenter lambasted him as a radical and people like him as a massive threat to our industry. They said that “these people” were out to destroy our industry and take away all our jobs. They boasted that easyJet had former secret service operatives working to find environmental activist “insiders” in the company. The other pilots in the room joked that they would take-off with James still on top of the plane. The atmosphere was extremely hostile and actually quite violent. I felt extremely uncomfortable and like I was going to be seen as an insider and a threat to my colleagues. Nothing could be further from the truth. I loved and still love aviation. I have no desire to destroy the industry or anyone’s jobs. But this was the first of a number of incidents that made me feel increasingly insecure and unsafe at work.
The threats, the struggle and how it ended
In the summer of 2021 I received a call on my annual leave from someone very high up in easyJet. It struck me as very strange to receive a personal call from someone so high up in the company. He came across as very chummy as he informed me that I had been reported to the company’s “Stand Up, Speak Out” program – an anonymous reporting program designed to flag individuals of concern in the company, people that might be mentally unwell or express radical or dangerous viewpoints. Apparently, a colleague had reported me after hearing me speak about the climate crisis. Mr Morgan informed me that the company knew that I had partaken in protests with XR. How they knew, I have no idea. But it started to prove my concerns correct that I had been identified as a radical and was being watched.
He went on to say that he was happy that I wasn’t doing anything illegal or in breach of my employment contract and that I could continue to protest as long as I did not break the law or speak to the media. I let him know that I was aware of our media policy whereby if I was approached for comment from the media that I should first speak to the easyJet Public Relations team. He finished the odd conversation by inviting me for coffee at Gatwick Airport. He said that easyJet had a lot of green initiatives happening behind the scenes that I didn’t know about that would put my mind at ease with easyJet’s impact on the climate. I agreed to get back to him on dates for this coffee. He ignored my follow-up emails and the meeting never happened. It was clear to me that this call was, in fact, a warning that I was being watched and to keep my mouth shut, or else.
Soon after that call, I was flying from Gatwick to Valencia. Descending over the Valencian hills a column of smoke appeared on the horizon. At that time, wildfires were raging across the Mediterranean, particularly in Greece where apocalyptic images of entire hillsides engulfed in flames were broadcast all over the media. As we neared the column of smoke, it became clear we were flying over a wildfire, albeit small. We flew right past the fire, the captain and I both silent. There was an ominous feeling in the flightdeck as I was confronted at that moment with the direct impact our industry was having on our world.
Up until then, I had become adept at compartmentalising my anxieties. When I was at home and walking through the airport I was anxious about the climate crisis. I increasingly wanted to stand up on a bench in the airport and shout at the passengers, “What are we doing?! Everything we love is burning!! Wake up!”. But as soon as I walked onto the aircraft I pushed my anxieties aside and was able to operate the aircraft professionally and safely.
I started to struggle to sleep before early shifts at work, having to cancel shifts late at night in a state of anxiety. I hoped this would pass. It did not.
In Christmas 2021, I spoke to our Human Resources (HR) team and told them that I believed that I was experiencing eco-anxiety and was struggling to sleep as a result. They briefly took me off flying duties to see if there was a way they could accommodate my anxieties. Initially, this meant trying to schedule me mostly later shifts rather than earlier shifts where I was struggling to sleep.
My HR contact was completely unaware of the seriousness of the climate crisis and eco-anxiety. I went through the process of having to explain to her that I couldn’t meditate myself out of the anxiety, nor could I “just stop watching the news or reading climate reports” as she suggested. I said that putting my head “back in the sand” was not the answer. She was only trying her best, but it ended up feeling like I was being gaslit and invalidated in my feelings.
In the spring of 2022 whilst still on leave pending a report from my counselor on my eco-anxiety, I received another call – this time from a Line manager at Gatwick. He was saying that he had seen my comments on our Workplace sustainability thread about the climate crisis and told me that I should stop these comments. He said that my comments were “damaging staff’s mental health”. I was curious how. He said, “let me put it this way, George. Imagine I’m a cabin crew member. I’ve had a long day at work and I decide to go on Workplace to find a ‘feel-good’ story about the climate and I see your comments saying ‘easyJet is potentially causing the wildfires in Europe’. How do you think that’s going to make me feel?” I said that what I was saying may be uncomfortable but that it’s the truth, and that it’s better to know the truth and feel uneasy about it than to be lied to about how my company is threatening everyone and everything I love. That betrayal when they find out the truth would be so much worse for them than knowing the truth now.
He tried to tell me that easyJet’s emissions were actually reducing. I challenged him that actually easyJets emissions “intensity” was reducing, not absolute emissions. After a lengthy to and fro, it became apparent that he was just repeating industry greenwash. He finished the conversation exasperatedly, “Look, George. EasyJet’s emissions will continue to increase and nothing will change that.”
Finally, the truth behind the greenwash and mental gymnastics.
The result of this call again proved to me that I was seen as a threat to the company. I became irreversibly anxious and had to make the extremely tough decision in June 2022 to declare myself to easyJet as permanently unfit to fly. I could not foresee a scenario where my anxiety was ever going to reduce within the context of the climate crisis and lack of action from the government and the aviation industry.
On that day, my childhood dream ended.
It felt like a relief. 2 years worth of anxiety around whether or not I could both care about the climate crisis and also be a pilot ended. I had finally taken control of the situation before it took control of me. I had decided to prioritise my mental health over my childhood dream. I was devastated, but relieved.
I spent 6 months on official ‘Long-term Sick Leave’, time afforded to me to “fix myself”. Evidently, there was nothing to fix and my eco-anxiety did not disappear. In November 2022, in a backroom in Gatwick Airport I met with two HR representatives and handed over my airport ID card, marking an end to the toughest ordeal of my life.
I walked out of the airport into the pouring rain, no longer an airline pilot. I took a deep breath and cried. It was over.
It was a profound moment. I felt a deep sense of grief, but also pride in myself for being brave enough to go through this process of understanding the truth of the climate crisis and living by my values to the bitter end. Despite the toll those years had on me, I regret absolutely nothing.
What else have you done in order to align your values with your daily actions and when did these changes take place / what other decisions for your future have you taken for that matter?
When I was in New Zealand I went through quite a transformational process. For a couple of weeks I was falling behind briefly on my studies and questioned if I was good enough to be a pilot.
During my struggles, that thankfully were short-lived (I turned out to one of the top in my class and excelled in easyJet, well on track to becoming a captain) I stumbled across a book on our communal book shelf in our shared accommodation called ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle. On the back cover Oprah Winfrey exclaimed that this book changed her life.
I challenged the book to change my life – and it did.
My world was opened up to the idea of mindfulness and meditation. I became aware of thoughts. I became aware there was someone or something observing my thoughts – my true self.
I became aware of my opinions and my emotions. I questioned what they were and where they came from. At that time, my sister and her partner had gone vegan. At first, I ridiculed them for their “ridiculous” decision and for “ruining Christmas”.
But my mindfulness started to kick in and I became more and more open to what they were having to say. I watched the videos they sent me of ‘Earthling Ed’, a vegan advocate and activist, debating non-vegans. I heard all my ignorant viewpoints reflected back at me. I realised that I had been conditioned to eat meat and dairy and that my initial aversion to going vegan was a trait of toxic masculinity and speciesism.
I started to reduce my meat consumption, followed by fish, dairy, eggs and honey. I got to a point where I was eating plant-based apart from an almond croissant I would treat myself to once a week at the farmers market. But I sat there one day and thought, “why am I treating myself to the suffering of another being even if it is just once a week?”
From that moment, I finally understood what it meant to be vegan.
The next week at the farmers market I decided to instead have the vegan cookie. I have been vegan ever since and will be celebrating 6 years vegan in March 2025.
In the years that followed my now open mind learned about other oppressions – racism during the Black Lives Matter protests, trans rights, class warfare, colonisation and more. I am currently reading about the oppression of the Palestinian people.
After I left easyJet I immediately joined Just Stop Oil and spent 2 years taking part in civil resistance. I led teams of people into road blocks where we’d be arrested and spend up to 24 hours in Police custody. To this date, I have been arrested 9 times, been on trial 3 times and have 1 criminal conviction.
I see it as our duty, those of us with the privilege, to resist our government and take part in direct action.
Those of us that can, should risk our liberty to fight for a better world.
More recently, I have protested against the genocide in Gaza. I have helped set up a Resistance Collective in my home town.
When did you join Safe Landing and what’s your role in this organization?
I joined Safe Landing when they first formed as a casual member attending meetings now and then. More recently, I took up a part-time role in January 2024 after I stepped away from Just Stop Oil. My role is Trade Union outreach and Workers’ Assembly advocacy. This involves liaising with unions advocating for deliberative democratic processes like Workers’ Assemblies to address the climate crisis.
The aviation industry is heading for a crash. The climate crisis is running out of control and aviation emissions are only increasing. The industry is spreading greenwash that it is reducing its emissions and that future technology will save the industry. But this is not true.
Technology is decades away from being viable at the scale needed. For the first time in the UK, emissions from aviation will be accounted for in our carbon budget from 2030. The global carbon budget for aviation is projected to be used up by the mid-2030s. If the industry does not rapidly reduce its carbon emissions, we face being legislated out of existence in the coming years. This will mean mass, permanent redundancies, dwarfing those that we saw during the covid-19 pandemic.
When it comes to pay and conditions, unions are brilliant at challenging industry leaders. But when it comes to the climate crisis, unions are in lockstep with industry leaders. As it stands, decarbonising aviation is still seen as a threat to jobs. But this could not be further from the truth – not acting on the climate crisis is risking not only our lives but our livelihoods. It is clear that current union democratic processes are not sufficient to address a crisis as complex as the climate crisis. Unions are often on the back foot fighting pay disputes and against the degradation of terms and conditions. Their branch meetings are far too short to go into the depth needed to discuss the climate crisis.
Meanwhile, aviation bosses only work in the interest of creating short-term profit and value for shareholders. Most bosses stay in their role for only a few years, create short-term profit and then leave the industry. We cannot trust them to act in the best interests of their workforce.
We need to completely transform how unions and workers make decisions. We have to empower workers with good information and time to deliberate on how our industry transforms to meet the net zero challenge. To do that, we need to embrace deliberative democratic processes like Workers’ Assemblies.
Such assemblies can help unions challenge industrial policy and form their own informed negotiating positions on net zero. Assemblies take a representational cross-section of a union or an industrial sector, take them through a process of education on the climate crisis and the proposed solutions, a process of deliberation and finally decision-making. The assemblies give participants the required information, time and power to make workers-led plans to transform our industry, save our jobs and save our lives.
In Safe Landing we are also trying to change the narrative that curbing demand for flying is necessarily bad for jobs and workers. As mentioned, if we don’t act now, we will lose our jobs either due to climate breakdown or restrictive anti-aviation policies imposed on us by the government.
The massive transformation aviation needs to go through to be fit for the future will require lots of labour and will maintain and possibly create lots of jobs in the process. The way we fly will also have to change from fast long-distance flights to shorter, slower flights. This will require more flight and cabin crew per mile travelled.
The jobs that are lost in aviation can use the money raised through progressive taxation like Frequent Flyer Levies to transition those workers into meaningful, green jobs with similar, if not better, pay. The aviation industry is full of valuable skills and trades that can be utilised in a transformed green economy.
The future may be uncertain but it doesn’t need to all be negative. The climate crisis, whilst scary, poses us with a massive opportunity to transform aviation and our communities for the better.
I see on your IG account that you are also participating in demonstrations against Barclays Bank (which apparently funds Israel?). Were these an initiative of a group of people or did these actions get organized under an umbrella of some organization?
Myself and a few others who used to be part of Just Stop Oil formed our own group called Portsmouth Resistance Collective. We initially formed around the idea of doing direct action in our local area based on the philosophy of nonviolence.
We have so far focused on doing sit-ins in Barclays, a British bank funding the weapons manufacturers supplying Israel with the hardware to enact their genocide on Palestinians in Gaza. They’re also wrapped up in funding the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
In addition to funding genocide, they are the single biggest funder of fossil fuels in Europe.
Our sit-ins have faced heavy policing, abuse from staff and some members of the public. They have also received a lot of support from some customers, many of whom have pledged to leave the bank as a result of our actions.
We sit down in the middle of the bank with signs informing the customers of what the bank is funding and that their money is being used to aid a genocide.
When the Police arrive we refuse to leave until it looks like we will be arrested imminently. At that point, we leave.
The idea is to try to normalise direct action and nonviolence as a philosophy behind pro-Palestine actions. Our actions have been very successful. They have forced the Police to clamp down, potentially unlawfully, on us. The sit-ins have forced the bank to employ full-time security, damaging their profits. They have encouraged countless customers to leave the bank and take their money elsewhere. We have succeeded in making Barclays a toxic brand in Portsmouth.
Well done! Has your environment been supportive with your decisions, or no? Family, friends…do they find you radical or they agree with you and your actions?
When I first told my Mum that I was questioning my place in easyJet and if I wanted to continue flying she was initially shocked and wary. She was concerned that I’d spent my whole life trying to be a pilot and, now that I was there, I was thinking about giving it all up. Eventually, she came to understand my situation and wholly supports my decision to leave aviation. Equally, when I first started to do direct action she was very concerned for my welfare and the impact of being arrested would have on me. But again, after a while she began to understand why I risk my liberty and she now supports my actions.
My friends in easyJet were always quite sceptical about my concerns about the climate crisis. They just hadn’t connected emotionally or intellectually with how serious the crisis is and instead chose to do what many people, particularly men, do and ridicule my concerns and my choice to increasingly align my actions with my values. I don’t know where they stand now that I’ve left the industry.
I am very lucky to have met some of the most amazing humans in groups like Just Stop Oil. I have made friends for life and I don’t know what I’d do without them. Community is everything.
The initiative “Just stop Oil” has a post about you, on September 2, last year, saying that you have been arrested for marching in the street in May. Would you like to tell us a little bit about this incident and the trial after that, which proved that you weren’t guilty?
In May 2023, I was taking part in the ‘Slow Marching’ action phase with Just Stop Oil. We had realised that blocking the road with static blocks would mean we were certain to be arrested and likely convicted facing possible jail time of up to a year. So, we pivoted strategically to marching very slowly in the road. This way it wouldn’t be classed as ‘Wilful obstruction of a public highway’. It would instead fall under Section 12 of the Public Order Act which allows the Police to put conditions on moving processions. The idea was that thousands of people would do many marches of small groups of people, instead of one march of thousands of people. This, in theory, would put immense pressure on the road infrastructure in London and the Metropolitan Police.
In May, I took part in a march in Parliament Square. We marched slowly down Whitehall and then around the road around Parliament Square. The Police followed us the whole way. Eventually, they arrested us for a breach of Section 12 after deeming that we had caused “serious disruption” to the life of the community.
I was handcuffed and detained in custody for 18 hours. I spent 16 hours before I could speak to a solicitor. I was released and a few months later I was charged.
I went to court in January 2024 for my trial with 4 others arrested on the day. Others who had been arrested that day had, at that time, already been to trial and been acquitted after their judges ruled that we had not caused “significant disruption”. At our trial, we highlighted this and the judge was surprised that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had decided to continue with the trial knowing that we would likely be similarly acquitted.
The judge put this point to the CPS before the trial started warning them to consider whether or not it was in the public interest to spend tax payers’ money on continuing with a trial that they would surely lose. They deliberated but continued nonetheless, to the judge’s surprise and annoyance.
Unsurprisingly, after the CPS presented their case, the judge dismissed the case refusing to hear our defence. He said that it was clear that there was no evidence of serious disruption and there was “no case to answer”. We left triumphant!
The CPS knew that they would lose the trial, the Police didn’t care if we would lose a trial. But they both succeeded in preventing our lawful right to protest on the day of the protest. This is how the state wields its power to quash dissent. It doesn’t matter if they lose in court, they succeed in stopping our protest, removing our liberty and giving us restrictive bail conditions that prevent us from protesting after we are arrested and until our trial many months later.
One good friend of yours, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu is now in jail for 31 months just because she was planning with others, on zoom, a peaceful demonstration against the fossil fuel industry? Is that correct? How can that be even possible? If I am not mistaken, many activists are now in jail along with her, such as Roger Hallam, co-founder of the famous Extinction Rebellion for the same reason, but I can’t wrap my head around this. Which law prohibits organizing a peaceful demonstration? Are you not in jail, just out of luck for not having participated in that specific zoom meeting?
In July 2024, Lucia and 4 others from Just Stop Oil (JSO) were sentenced to 4 years in prison (5 years for Roger Hallam, co-founder of XR and JSO). They were charged with ‘Conspiracy to commit a Public Nuisance’ after a journalist from the right-wing newspaper ‘The Sun’ recorded a zoom call where they planned to block the M25.
The journalist, Scarlett Howes, took the recording, wrote a front–page article about the plan to block the M25 and only then sent the recording to the Police. The Police then invited her to join them when they raided Roger Hallam’s home. The Sun filmed the raid and posted it on their website. This showed a grim coalition between the Police and right-wing media – true corruption.
Ms Howes, went on to write a lengthy article after the trial:
In the trial in June/July, the defendants had all their legal defences removed by Judge Hehir. They could not use defences like proportionality and necessity. When they tried, they were shut down by the Judge. Roger was arrested a number of times for defying the judge and continuing to try to give the defence of necessity. The judge argued that there was no obvious link between blocking the M25 and influencing governmental policy, despite the fact that Just Stop Oil’s demand for no new oil and gas licences has since been fulfilled by the now Labour government.
They were also prevented from speaking about the climate crisis as a motivation for their actions. The judge said, “the end of the world is neither here nor there.” When the defendants tried to speak about the climate crisis they were again shut down by the judge and were arrested when they defied him by continuing to speak.
By the end of the trial, 4 of the 5 defendants had been taken to prison for ‘Contempt of Court’ for defying the judge’s directions. They were presented to court each morning from prison and returned after the day’s proceedings. Only Lucia was not arrested because she was suffering from Long Covid at the time and didn’t want to disobey the Judge for fear of worsening her condition.
The trial was essentially rigged against them. They tried to argue that they had not been given a fair trial. The judge naturally disagreed.
They were found unanimously guilty by the Jury. The judge cruelly sent them to prison immediately pending their sentence. His reasons being that he believed they were at risk of re-offending, an absurd assertion. They were never going to plan another block of the M25 in the week before their sentencing. This was an extraordinarily cruel way of removing their liberty very suddenly with no preparation or warning. He also made it clear that when he sentenced them in a week’s time that they were going to be sent to prison “for a very long time”.
They were given an opportunity to argue against this decision. Lucia argued that her parents are very ill (her Dad has Multiple Sclerosis and her Mum has very poor mobility) and that she needed to care for them and prepare them for her stint in prison. The judge rebutted this saying that she should have thought about the impact on her parents when she committed the offence two years ago – another insane assertion.
The judge ordered they be taken away to prison immediately. That was the last time they saw freedom.
It was an incredibly painful experience. When the judge was making these comments, he was looking at us in the public gallery the whole time knowing full well that this was a punishment for us as the defendants’ loved ones as much as the defendants. He was almost smiling throughout the whole ordeal.
He even thanked the jury for coming to the ‘right verdict’. The whole trial was engineered from the beginning for a guilty verdict and a lengthy prison sentence. It would not surprise me if there was some corruption behind the scenes in getting Judge Hehir, a man who admitted himself that he doesn’t believe the climate crisis is at all serious, assigned to this case.
A week later, they were presented to court and sentenced to 4 and 5 years in prison in front of a full public gallery. Hundreds demonstrated outside the court in solidarity with the prisoners. Celebrities like Chris Packham spoke after the sentencing to the media expressing their dismay at the decision.
Since their sentencing, further JSO activists have been sentenced to prison for tunnelling underneath a road outside an oil terminal in 2022, actually climbing up the M25 gantries for the action Lucia and the others organised, and for throwing soup on Van Gogh’s sunflowers. Their lengthy sentence set a precedent for climate activists all over the country. Prison is now a normal sentence, making the UK an outlier in Europe and the global north for imprisoning activists of conscience.
According to Michel Forst, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, believes that these sentences put the UK in breach of international law, namely the Aarhus Convention – a convention designed to protect climate defenders from undue punishment.
The ‘Whole Truth Five’, as they are now called, are appealing their sentences. Their appeal will be held in London on 29th and 30th January 2025 at the Royal Courts of Justice from 10am.
All this can only leave us speechless. Thank you for sharing with us your inspiring story and keep up the good work!