Caril Cowan: Extinction Rebellion Auckland member on Stonehenge being sprayed by Just Stop Oil protestors

Two Just Stop Oil protestors have been arrested after the vandalisation of Stonehenge.

Activists from the group were caught spraying the monument with orange powder paint - and Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have condemned the incident.

Extinction Rebellion Auckland member Caril Cowan is defending Just Stop Oil, claiming the paint they used did no permanent damage.

"It's making a point that we've got a climate crisis. 80 percent of our population is concerned about the climate... and yet we've got Governments not only here in New Zealand, but around the world, who are just stalling."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now Stonehenge. I mean, jeez, you'll have seen this by
now right. Stonehenge, which is one of the UK's oldest monuments,
has been vandalized with orange powder by the Just Stop
Oil protesters. Two people have been arrested and both Rishi
Sunac and Kiostama, the guy who are running for Prime
Minister at the moment, have condemned the action. In a statement,
the group said, continuing to burn coal, oil and gas

(00:20):
will result in the death of millions. We have come
together to defend humanity or we risk everything now. Carol
Cohen is a member of climate protest group Extinction Rebellion
in New Zealand and is with us. Now, Hey, Carol Kurda,
how are you, Heather? I'm well, thank you. Do you
think they've gone a little bit far here?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, it's hard to say, isn't it, Because you have
got some responsibility with using corn starch. It's going to
run off next time it rains. It's not damaging stones.
It's making a point that you know, we've got a
climate crisis. Center of their population is concerned about the climate.

(01:03):
Most of your listeners will be concerned about the climate,
and yet we've got governments not only here in New Zealand,
but all around the world who are just stalling on
taking action. And when they say that, you know, thousands
are going to or they say, I forget what number?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Million?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yes die millions. Yes, Well, we've got people dying now.
We have three thousand or so a year in New
Zealand dying of air pollution. We've had people in India
right now dying of heat exhaustion because of the heatwave

(01:45):
and so on and so forth.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
So, Carol, I mean, do you think that any when
these two people turn up and they're spraying the orange
stuff on Stonehenge, do you think that people look at
that and go, oh man, we've got to do something
about the climate. Or do they look then go pack
of clowns.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I think you get both if we think of our
experience here in this country over the ad One tour
that we had people going, you know, you shouldn't be
out on the street, you shouldn't be trying to disrupt
drunk feet and you had other people saying do you
think I don't.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Know that there's any equivalents because back in at the
Springbok tour, you had a lot of people taking to
the streets. It was a really big group. You get
to just oil people. I mean, it's a tiny handful
of crazies, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
This is a one off thing that's happened with only
two people. Yeah, they have streets. They've had so many protests.
They stopped the they interrupt sports, they interrupt traffic. They
it's just ongoing and it's big.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Hmm.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Okay at twenty thousand in the streets a couple of
weekends ago.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Carol, I'm kind of perplexed by the choice of Stonehenge, because,
I mean, the stones aren't doing anything to the climate,
are they. This just looks like a tension.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, I know, and you chose it. I don't know.
Why would it be appropriate for us here to I
don't know, do a c serverity protest with Queen Victoria statues.
Would that be wh irrelevant?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Why don't you vandalize some cycle ways?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, we want cycle ways. I'll tell you what I've
done here. We have gone and symbolically shut them down
and declared it a climate.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
You shouldn't do that, Carol. Didn't you just hear what
I said about the GDP. The reason that we're technically
out of recessions because are dairy farmers. You got a
helpful on terror.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I know, well, yeah, I know you have to for
the GDP, But are you going to do GDP over
climate crisis when we have got first I am and
houses that are unlivable from last year's floods and cyclones
and why did we have such a terrible cyclone's terrible

(04:11):
floods They worked out it was about sixty percent worse
because of the climate.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Right, Well, you still need the GDP to be able
to fix those houses. Carol, thank you. I really appreciate
you having a chat to us. It's Carol Cohen Extinction Rebellion.
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