Activists attend Shell London Lecture Series at Burlington House

Three Rising Tide activists attended the Shell London
Lecture Series at Burlington House, Piccadilly, 2012.  Bruce Levell, the
Vice President of Emerging Technologies, delivered a lecture on the
Geological Aspects of Renewable Energy.

None of us had been to Burlington House before and the opportunity for
the action came about very last minute. So we were a bit nervous
whether we'd pull it off. Two of us planned to get on the stage
holding a banner while the third activist would take a photo. But we
didn't know how big the auditorium or stage was. And we weren't sure
whether we would be searched risking the banner being found. But off
we went. It turns out the venue is very small. The auditorium probably
does not have more than 20 rows and the first few are not elevated.
The stage is very small and probably would not fit more than 3 or 4
people. There was also no visible security and we walked in without
any trouble.

The audience was a mixed bunch. Several older people and some young
ones with pound signs in their eyes. Like the guy who sat next to me
sporting the posh preppy look.

The talk started promptly at 6. The director of the Geological Society
thanked Shell for making the lecture series happen. You could almost
see the greenwash dripping from his mouth as he spoke. As soon as
Bruce Levell came on stage, two of us promptly got up and unfurled a
banner on the impact of Shell's tar sands exploration on indigenous
people. The banner said, “"Shell Tar Sands = 55 years First Nations
Treaty Violations".

There was a hush and some sighs. The stage was so small that the
banner completely covered Bruce. Then, as expected, security
materialized and took the two protesters away. Unfortunately due to
the size of the banner (too big), and the position of the photographer
activist (too close), the photo could not capture the banner in its
entirety.

The third activist stayed for 10 more minutes before leaving. In that
10 minutes, Bruce made a passing reference to tar sands and pointed to
the space where the protesters were. We had communicated our message
and had made it known we are here and we will be back again and again.
Plus, we also now know what the Burlington House venue is like and can
target more of Shell's greenwashing