• Contact
  • About
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
East Anglia Bylines
  • HOME
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Health
    • Welfare
    • World
    Photo montage: picking apples, fishing and food market

    The Government’s Fantasy Food Strategy

    Adventure playground.

    Outdoor free family activities this summer

    "Freeze prices, not the poor".

    How excess profits is driving inflation, not wage increases

    Dr Daniel Goyal launches his Covid Fit campaign.

    To reduce the risk of severe covid, “Covid Fit” launches

    Bullied girl in school

    Online Pornography: Risk to children continues after delay to Online Safety Bill

    Lab-grown meat.

    Delivered fresh from the laboratory

    SARS-COV2 (Covid)

    Centaurus: what we know about the new COVID variant and why there’s no cause for alarm

    Image: 'Ipswich' by shining.darkness licenced under CC 2.0

    Shock at more than one third of Ipswich children living in poverty

    Assorted passports

    Mo Farah was trafficked to the UK – the government’s new immigration law could make it harder for modern slavery victims to receive help

    • Brexit
    • Health
    • Education
    • World
  • Opinion
  • Politics
    • All
    • Activism
    • Justice
    • Local government
    Rishi Sunak in Downing Street

    Sunak opens a can that perhaps should have been left closed

    Empty wallet

    The real risk is that the economy could fail this winter

    Norwich supports Ukraine

    “Norwich stands with Ukraine” at the City Hall

    Worried elderly person

    Commons report warns of energy bills cataclysm, as Tories bicker over tax cuts

    17 May BPI occupation

    New identity for BP Institute?

    Bullied girl in school

    Online Pornography: Risk to children continues after delay to Online Safety Bill

    Liz Truss in Moscow

    Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss? Polling shows party members want her – but the wider voting public would choose him

    Priti Patel

    Patel snubs select committee as documents condemn “inexcusably awful” refugee response

    Number 10 Downing Street is the headquarters and London residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

    As the ERG acclaim Truss their champion, Sunak will need to risk splitting his party in order to win

    • Local government
    • Justice
    • Activism
  • Climate
    • All
    • Climate
    Photo montage: picking apples, fishing and food market

    The Government’s Fantasy Food Strategy

    Low water in the Upper Neuadd Reservoir, 1976

    UK drought: are farmers facing the crop failures of 1976 all over again?

    Kentish Flats offshore windfarm.

    Disruption and digging for the foreseeable

    Hydrogen powered bus

    Is hydrogen the future?

    Holme beach

    Cat Among the Pigeons comes to mind

    Worried elderly person

    Commons report warns of energy bills cataclysm, as Tories bicker over tax cuts

    17 May BPI occupation

    New identity for BP Institute?

    River Dove at Red Bridge.

    The River Dove: past, present and future

    Lab-grown meat.

    Delivered fresh from the laboratory

    • Environment
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Community
    • Culture
    • History
    • Humour
    Adventure playground.

    Outdoor free family activities this summer

    2012 gamesmakers

    2012: Welcoming the world to London

    Rough sleeper on the Tony Carter cycle bridge, Cambridge

    Cambridge – an unhappy paradox

    Bikes at Cambridge Station

    Cycling is East Anglia’s new superpower

    All Saints parish church, Little Cornard.

    Little Cornard: the horses, the harvest and the hills

    Procession portrait of Elizabeth I

    How Elizabethan law once protected the poor from the high cost of living – and led to unrivalled economic prosperity

    Church bells at Great Barton.

    Ringing the changes

    Stapleford Granary concert hall

    July classical events at Stapleford Granary, Cambridge

    Suffolk SketchFest is back

    • Community
    • Culture
    • History
    • Humour
    • Property
  • Business
    • All
    • Economics
    • Finance
    • Transport
    Empty wallet

    The real risk is that the economy could fail this winter

    Truss & Sunak

    A tale of two candidates and three economies

    Hydrogen powered bus

    Is hydrogen the future?

    "Freeze prices, not the poor".

    How excess profits is driving inflation, not wage increases

    Rough sleeper on the Tony Carter cycle bridge, Cambridge

    Cambridge – an unhappy paradox

    Bikes at Cambridge Station

    Cycling is East Anglia’s new superpower

    The Conservative Party is set to elect a new leader

    The Conservatives broke the UK economy – and don’t know how to fix it

    Contenders for Prime Minister

    Government is not an economic black hole as Tories seem to think: it’s essential to our national well-being

    Procession portrait of Elizabeth I

    How Elizabethan law once protected the poor from the high cost of living – and led to unrivalled economic prosperity

    • Economics
    • Finance
    • Transport
    • Farming
  • ANGLIA
    • All
    • Anglia
    • Bedfordshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Essex
    • Hertfordshire
    • Norfolk
    • Suffolk
    Kentish Flats offshore windfarm.

    Disruption and digging for the foreseeable

    Norwich supports Ukraine

    “Norwich stands with Ukraine” at the City Hall

    Adventure playground.

    Outdoor free family activities this summer

    17 May BPI occupation

    New identity for BP Institute?

    River Dove at Red Bridge.

    The River Dove: past, present and future

    Rough sleeper on the Tony Carter cycle bridge, Cambridge

    Cambridge – an unhappy paradox

    Bikes at Cambridge Station

    Cycling is East Anglia’s new superpower

    Image: 'Ipswich' by shining.darkness licenced under CC 2.0

    Shock at more than one third of Ipswich children living in poverty

    East Anglia One windfarm.

    Pylons and trenches: speed before the environment?

    • East Anglia
    • Bedfordshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Essex
    • Hertfordshire
    • Norfolk
    • Suffolk
  • Series
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Health
    • Welfare
    • World
    Photo montage: picking apples, fishing and food market

    The Government’s Fantasy Food Strategy

    Adventure playground.

    Outdoor free family activities this summer

    "Freeze prices, not the poor".

    How excess profits is driving inflation, not wage increases

    Dr Daniel Goyal launches his Covid Fit campaign.

    To reduce the risk of severe covid, “Covid Fit” launches

    Bullied girl in school

    Online Pornography: Risk to children continues after delay to Online Safety Bill

    Lab-grown meat.

    Delivered fresh from the laboratory

    SARS-COV2 (Covid)

    Centaurus: what we know about the new COVID variant and why there’s no cause for alarm

    Image: 'Ipswich' by shining.darkness licenced under CC 2.0

    Shock at more than one third of Ipswich children living in poverty

    Assorted passports

    Mo Farah was trafficked to the UK – the government’s new immigration law could make it harder for modern slavery victims to receive help

    • Brexit
    • Health
    • Education
    • World
  • Opinion
  • Politics
    • All
    • Activism
    • Justice
    • Local government
    Rishi Sunak in Downing Street

    Sunak opens a can that perhaps should have been left closed

    Empty wallet

    The real risk is that the economy could fail this winter

    Norwich supports Ukraine

    “Norwich stands with Ukraine” at the City Hall

    Worried elderly person

    Commons report warns of energy bills cataclysm, as Tories bicker over tax cuts

    17 May BPI occupation

    New identity for BP Institute?

    Bullied girl in school

    Online Pornography: Risk to children continues after delay to Online Safety Bill

    Liz Truss in Moscow

    Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss? Polling shows party members want her – but the wider voting public would choose him

    Priti Patel

    Patel snubs select committee as documents condemn “inexcusably awful” refugee response

    Number 10 Downing Street is the headquarters and London residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

    As the ERG acclaim Truss their champion, Sunak will need to risk splitting his party in order to win

    • Local government
    • Justice
    • Activism
  • Climate
    • All
    • Climate
    Photo montage: picking apples, fishing and food market

    The Government’s Fantasy Food Strategy

    Low water in the Upper Neuadd Reservoir, 1976

    UK drought: are farmers facing the crop failures of 1976 all over again?

    Kentish Flats offshore windfarm.

    Disruption and digging for the foreseeable

    Hydrogen powered bus

    Is hydrogen the future?

    Holme beach

    Cat Among the Pigeons comes to mind

    Worried elderly person

    Commons report warns of energy bills cataclysm, as Tories bicker over tax cuts

    17 May BPI occupation

    New identity for BP Institute?

    River Dove at Red Bridge.

    The River Dove: past, present and future

    Lab-grown meat.

    Delivered fresh from the laboratory

    • Environment
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Community
    • Culture
    • History
    • Humour
    Adventure playground.

    Outdoor free family activities this summer

    2012 gamesmakers

    2012: Welcoming the world to London

    Rough sleeper on the Tony Carter cycle bridge, Cambridge

    Cambridge – an unhappy paradox

    Bikes at Cambridge Station

    Cycling is East Anglia’s new superpower

    All Saints parish church, Little Cornard.

    Little Cornard: the horses, the harvest and the hills

    Procession portrait of Elizabeth I

    How Elizabethan law once protected the poor from the high cost of living – and led to unrivalled economic prosperity

    Church bells at Great Barton.

    Ringing the changes

    Stapleford Granary concert hall

    July classical events at Stapleford Granary, Cambridge

    Suffolk SketchFest is back

    • Community
    • Culture
    • History
    • Humour
    • Property
  • Business
    • All
    • Economics
    • Finance
    • Transport
    Empty wallet

    The real risk is that the economy could fail this winter

    Truss & Sunak

    A tale of two candidates and three economies

    Hydrogen powered bus

    Is hydrogen the future?

    "Freeze prices, not the poor".

    How excess profits is driving inflation, not wage increases

    Rough sleeper on the Tony Carter cycle bridge, Cambridge

    Cambridge – an unhappy paradox

    Bikes at Cambridge Station

    Cycling is East Anglia’s new superpower

    The Conservative Party is set to elect a new leader

    The Conservatives broke the UK economy – and don’t know how to fix it

    Contenders for Prime Minister

    Government is not an economic black hole as Tories seem to think: it’s essential to our national well-being

    Procession portrait of Elizabeth I

    How Elizabethan law once protected the poor from the high cost of living – and led to unrivalled economic prosperity

    • Economics
    • Finance
    • Transport
    • Farming
  • ANGLIA
    • All
    • Anglia
    • Bedfordshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Essex
    • Hertfordshire
    • Norfolk
    • Suffolk
    Kentish Flats offshore windfarm.

    Disruption and digging for the foreseeable

    Norwich supports Ukraine

    “Norwich stands with Ukraine” at the City Hall

    Adventure playground.

    Outdoor free family activities this summer

    17 May BPI occupation

    New identity for BP Institute?

    River Dove at Red Bridge.

    The River Dove: past, present and future

    Rough sleeper on the Tony Carter cycle bridge, Cambridge

    Cambridge – an unhappy paradox

    Bikes at Cambridge Station

    Cycling is East Anglia’s new superpower

    Image: 'Ipswich' by shining.darkness licenced under CC 2.0

    Shock at more than one third of Ipswich children living in poverty

    East Anglia One windfarm.

    Pylons and trenches: speed before the environment?

    • East Anglia
    • Bedfordshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Essex
    • Hertfordshire
    • Norfolk
    • Suffolk
  • Series
No Result
View All Result
East Anglia Bylines
No Result
View All Result

BP hypocrisy on climate challenged by Cambridge sit-in

Interview with Beth Doherty on activists' 63-minute recent occupation of Cambridge University's BP Institute

Aidan BakerbyAidan Baker
June 25, 2022
in Cambridgeshire, Climate, Education
17 May BPI occupation

17 May BPI occupation. Photo © Fossil Free Research

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

On 17 May, the BP Institute at the University of Cambridge was occupied for 63 minutes by students and academics of the Fossil Free Research campaign, calling for an end to university funding by the fossil fuel industry.

The BP Institute is a research institute founded in 2000 following an endowment by BP. It is attached to five of the University’s departments: Earth Sciences, Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Engineering.  Its Annual Masterclass in Energy Supply and demand, according to the Institute’s web page, “includes lively debate on the energy transition, including presentations and discussion of the technological challenges associated with various sources of energy and challenges on reducing energy demand.”

Beth Doherty was one of those involved in the sit-in.  Aidan Baker subsequently interviewed her by Zoom.

63 minute occupation

AB: Did you manage to stick to 63 minutes? And if so, how?

BD:  Once we entered the building, we set a timer for 63 minutes. And after the 63 minutes ended the timer went off, and we left.

Why it was 63 minutes

AB: I gather it was 63 minutes for a 63rd anniversary. What happened in 1959?

BD:  The executives of what’s now Exxon and other oil companies were first informed of the climate crisis and their contributions towards it. And we still haven’t seen much action from them in that time period.

AB:  Can you give me chapter and verse? Who said what to the fossil fuel companies?

Beth has sent EAB a link to Benjamin Franta’s Guardianarticle about how nuclear weapons physicist Edward Teller addressed the 1959 Energy and Man symposium, organized by the American Petroleum Institute and the Columbia Graduate School of Business to mark the centenary of the American oil industry, about the likely effects of carbon dioxide on climate.

Future plans

AB: What are your plans now?

BD:   We’re going to continue the campaign to ask the university to stop accepting fossil fuel funding for climate related research. We currently have over 600 signatures of academics on an open letter, prominent academics, within science and other fields. And increasing student engagement, and liaising with Harvard, Oxford and other universities around the world.

The university is accepting money from fossil fuel companies such as BP to fund climate related research. And this is threatening academic freedom and integrity in terms of what they can and can’t research, what they can and can’t publish. There’s a conflict of interest between the fossil fuel companies’ business model and what we need from climate related research. We believe we’re taking a natural step to ensure academic integrity and freedom and to avoid that conflict of interest. It’s in line with the university’s commitment to divestment.

AB: Are you a climate scientist yourself?

BD:  I’m a first year law student. I’ve been involved in climate activism for the last three years. We have a pretty good mix of law students, politics students, students of natural sciences — a nice mix of disciplines.

EAB contacted the BP Institute to ask for its views.  As of this writing a reply has not been received.  Their masterclasses on the energy transition sound interesting, but the website tells of no plans for BP to withdraw from the oil business.


More from East Anglia Bylines

Cycling.
Climate

Thirty for 30 – how to reduce your carbon footprint

byJules Pretty
May 10, 2022
Tags: Climate
Previous Post

Quo vadis?

Next Post

Northern Ireland Protocol Bill results in Cambridge lab losing its EU funding

Aidan Baker

Aidan Baker

Aidan Baker is a retired librarian living in Cambridge, England. His poems have appeared in ‘Sledgehammer’, ‘RIC’, ‘Orbis’, projects from 26 Characters, and numerous other outlets both printed and online. He blogs his published poems at Blurtmetry. Aidan is a member of the EAB editorial team.

Related Posts

Worried elderly person
Activism

Commons report warns of energy bills cataclysm, as Tories bicker over tax cuts

byJenny Rhodes
July 30, 2022
17 May BPI occupation
Activism

New identity for BP Institute?

byAidan Baker
July 29, 2022
Rough sleeper on the Tony Carter cycle bridge, Cambridge
Anglia

Cambridge – an unhappy paradox

byJ.J. Jackson
July 25, 2022
Anti-deportation protest in Cambridge
Activism

Cambridge protestors condemn Rwanda deportation policy

byAidan Baker
July 20, 2022
Washing hands with soap.
Climate

The power of the consumer

byMadge McClary
July 17, 2022
Next Post
Rook

Northern Ireland Protocol Bill results in Cambridge lab losing its EU funding

Want to support us?

Can you help East Anglia Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

DONATE

Sign up to our newsletter

If you would like to receive the East Anglia Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

NEWSLETTER

LATEST

Photo montage: picking apples, fishing and food market

The Government’s Fantasy Food Strategy

August 7, 2022
Low water in the Upper Neuadd Reservoir, 1976

UK drought: are farmers facing the crop failures of 1976 all over again?

August 6, 2022
Mr Pecksniff (Social Media)

Pecksniff’s Diary

August 5, 2022
Rishi Sunak in Downing Street

Sunak opens a can that perhaps should have been left closed

August 5, 2022

MOST READ

Rishi Sunak in Downing Street

Sunak opens a can that perhaps should have been left closed

August 5, 2022
Truss & Sunak

A tale of two candidates and three economies

August 3, 2022
Photo montage: picking apples, fishing and food market

The Government’s Fantasy Food Strategy

August 7, 2022
Empty wallet

The real risk is that the economy could fail this winter

August 4, 2022

Tags

Activism Brexit Climate Community COP26 Culture Democracy Development Economics Economy Education Employment Energy Environment Farming Government Health History Housing Humour Hymns International Women's Day Justice Letters Local elections 2022 music National Grid NHS Opinion Pandemic Party politics Pecksniff Poetry Politics Poverty Proportional representation Rivers of East Anglia Sewage Sizewell Social care Transport Ukraine VAWG Welfare Wildlife
East Anglia Bylines

We are a not-for-profit citizen journalism publication. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in East Anglia and beyond.

East Anglia Bylines is a trading brand of Bylines Network Limited, which is a sister organisation to Byline Times. The Bylines Network and Byline Times are financially, legally and editorially separate entities.


Learn more about us

No Result
View All Result
  • About us
    • Contact us
    • Bylines Network
    • Complaints
    • Newsletter
    • Privacy Policy
    • Donate
  • UK
  • Anglia
  • About us
  • UK
  • Anglia

© 2022 East Anglia Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • News
    • Brexit
    • Health
    • Education
    • World
  • Opinion
  • Politics
    • Local government
    • Justice
    • Activism
  • Climate
    • Environment
  • Lifestyle
    • Community
    • Culture
    • History
    • Humour
    • Property
  • Business
    • Economics
    • Finance
    • Transport
    • Farming
  • ANGLIA
    • East Anglia
    • Bedfordshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Essex
    • Hertfordshire
    • Norfolk
    • Suffolk
  • Series

© 2022 East Anglia Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In