Monday, Jan 15th, 3 scientists are facing trial right now in Germany for acts of civil disobedience in resistance against Governments' blatant exacerbating of the ongoing climate emergency.
These actions were taken during the Unite Against Climate Failure campaign, in coalition with Debt For Climate, Letzte Generation, and other groups.
Chemist and firefighter Mark V. is on trial today after participating in a non-violent direct action at the BlackRock headquarters in Munich in 2022.
Scientists occupied and threw fake oil at the building. Mark has been charged with property destruction. However, his charges are jarring in the face of impunity enjoyed by BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world and an enabler of humanitarian crime.
Indeed, BlackRock invests in companies involved in mining, oil extraction, deforestation, among others. Their actions have led to true property and environmental destruction, and the displacement and suffering of peoples.
In their actions, scientists aimed to expose BlackRock as the biggest investor in the climate crisis and in humanitarian crimes, and demand Germany to call on the World Bank and IMF to cancel the Global South’s financial debt so those countries can undergo a just transition.
Nicolas, a French Environmental Engineer, is on trial. He was held in custody for 15 hours in October 2022 for participating in two non-violent direct actions in Munich, one of which was the BlackRock action.
Along with others, he also blocked a road. Scientists demanded transport decarbonization, implementation of a speed limit on autobahns & reinstatement of the 9€ public transport ticket
Although all agree that transport decarbonisation is vital to lower carbon emissions, it is still occurring at a very slow rate. It is high time for politicians to admit failure to limit temperature rise to below 1.5ºC, and to act accordingly to the crisis we face.
Agisilaos Koulouris, Greek physical education teacher, ex-assistant researcher in Physiology & Biomechanics, is on trial for taking part in two non-violent direct actions in 2022 during Scientist Rebellion's Unite Against Climate Failure campaign, against BMW and luxury cars, and against BlackRock.
One of the actions he was part of had scientists enter a BMW showroom. There, some glued to a luxury car, while other scientists sprayed black paint and pasted scientific papers to cars. In this action, scientists exposed BMW's aggressive greenwashing and lobbying to continue business as usual despite the imperative to decarbonise transport immediately.