In a new twist in the ongoing anti-diesel saga, Greenpeace activists have shown how much they oppose diesel vehicles by storming a 23,000-tonne ship that was crossing the sea towards the UK to make a delivery of Volkswagen diesel cars. Their actions raise the question of how many more anti-diesel protests we might see, given the continuing negative publicity.
Anti-diesel activism
Travelling to the ship using boats and kayaks, the 25 activists attempted to climb the ship. Greenpeace has stated that it will not stop until Volkswagen commits to stop sending toxic cars to the UK and to stop using diesel for good.
Once on board, the volunteer activists attached themselves to the retractable loading ramps at the stern of the ship. They may have chosen September to strike due to the number of new cars being delivered with the latest registration plate.
Nor was it just the Volkswagen cargo ship that was in the activists’ sights. 41 volunteers also scaled fences at the Sheerness port in Kent, which is where the ship was heading. These individuals tried to confiscate the keys of thousands of diesel cars which were being held at the port.
They displayed banners at the port and at a nearby pier, highlighting the devastating impact that diesel vehicles have on the environment. The group hoped to highlight the environmental damage associated with diesel cars and with Volkswagen in particular.
Volkswagen has been at the top of many environmentalists’ hit list since the emissions scandal broke in 2015. The company was caught fitting software to its diesel vehicles, which manipulated emissions tests. Doing so meant that the firm was sending a multitude of toxic vehicles out into the market – with profits clearly being made at the expense of the environment.
In total, Volkswagen’s manipulation affected 11 million vehicles. 1.2 million of these were sold in the UK.
Volkswagen’s response
Following the incident, Volkswagen has revealed that there were actually more petrol than diesel cars on board the ship at the time of the protest. There were also 37 plug-in hybrids on board, which are definitely a more eco-friendly choice. In addition to this, Volkswagen stated that all of the diesel vehicles on board met with the strict Euro-6 standards that have been put in place.
It is unknown whether the actions of the Greenpeace activists has had an effect on getting deliveries to customers on time.
In another activism incident, Greenpeace also placed itself outside of the industry-leading Frankfurt Motor Show. The organisation’s installation included a Volkswagen Touareg, making another clear statement about its feelings towards this particular car manufacturer.
Protests on our streets?
It is easy to see why environmental activists would be unhappy with Volkswagen, and the use of diesel cars in general. Air pollution is now one of the most significant challenges facing London and many other large UK cities. Diesel vehicle fumes contain nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter that have adverse effects on human health. As such, getting these vehicles off the road would be a big step towards improving air quality.
However, it wasn’t long ago that people were being encouraged to buy diesel cars, as they produce less CO2 than petrol vehicles. It is only because the toxins being produced at a local level have been judged to be far worse that recommendations have now switched to suggesting people purchase alternatives to diesels.
If protests like this continue to grow and gain coverage in the media, the views from the public about diesel cars will surely become stronger too. Scrappage schemes and toxicity charges are highlighting how harmful diesel cars are. With activism incidents added into the mix, how long will it be before we see protests at the fuel pumps? Or on the forecourts of car dealerships? Only time will tell.
Would you take to the streets to protest against the damage that diesel vehicles are doing to our environment? Or are the government and car manufacturers already doing enough to address the issue? Let us know your views by leaving a comment below.
Greenpeace need to do a bit more research before they protest against new diesel cars they are not the problem. If we checked every car that a Greenpeace member drove I guarantee you there would be a number of them that were more polluting than any new car. Compared to the rest of Europe the UK is a drop in the ocean I grew up on holidays in Portugal and 20 years ago petrol cars were rare and it was all about diesel it’s not changed much now either and you don’t see them dropping like flies. That’s not even mentioning pullution by lorries, planes and boats. Greenpeace fight for health and peace for everyone but are focusing there efforts on the wrong thing it’s an absolute joke.
I totally agree with Ric.Greenpeace are a joke.
Even Dr Patrick Moore, who left Greenpeace in 1986,now calls it an “‘evil organisation” which has “lost concern for humans.”
Errr don’t Greenpeace have some clapped out rusty sh*t heap of a boat the runs on marine diesel..or am I wrong and it runs on pixie dust???? That turd of a ship will give out more pollution than all the VAG cars on the planet for christ’s sake. Greenpeace are just a big bunch of hypocritical morons!
Don’t act and talk like someone with no education. I am sure you are not doing yourself justice. I worked for Greenpeace for many years as an International campaigner. At that time early eighties my and other staff earned around £45 pounds per week. Everyone else in the UK office lived in London and its environs whilst my home was in Cornwall with a commute to London each week. Not one of the other staff members owned a car but used public transport all the time. My wife needed a car all the time in Cornwall as we do today. Our nearest bus route is almost a mile away as public transport in the countryside is even worse today. State Pensioners like us (no other pension) will never be able to afford a new car. I am now 75 and I doubt whether I will see an electric car in my price range even second hand. So come on Fellow Greenpeace members what are we suppose to do?
Maybe if they protested about the rundown state of public transport and the fact that it is overpriced and therefore not a viable alternative to using any type of private vehicles.
No vechical runs on fresh air. They all have some footprint therefore doing some damage. Bunch of fools.
Totally agree with all that’s been said before. If these lunatics would channel their efforts into something that would be helpful and positive, maybe I then wouldn’t tell them to go and get a proper job!
Greenpiece appear to be jumping on the bandwagon here, not just the Volkswagen, in their usual neo-thug fashion.
I’m fully in agreement with the first comment from Ric.
Greenpeace are anti anytihing to do with the Internal Combustion Engine even if it’s built to the highest standard. Do they really expect us to go back to horse and cart? I know of one senior environmental executive whose car was a VW diesel estate but ancient! Pot, kettle, black – do as we say not as we do.
I work in Kent for a transport company that collects cars from the port, and have been told that the protesters arrived in an old diesel coach! I was also sat at York station a few weeks ago and was disgusted at the quantity of fumes coming from the diesel trains, far worse than any of our vehicles.
Yes all very interesting but pointless, particularly as diesel not much different in pollution to petrol engines now. Also, will Greenpeace eventually recognise the very considerable pollution effects of battery production for Hybrids? Agree, they need to start researching properly to establish real facts.
In any case, not much point in targeting a ship as small as 23-tonnes!
How about getting all oil-fired home boilers fitted with catalytic converters? Just think of all those millions of houses spewing forth the filth each winter… Leave us diesel drivers alone!
Gas boilers also emit a similar chemical mix as oil boilers and diesel cars, though in lower quantities than the latter.
Greenpeace hypocrisy again. When are the courts going to dish out appropriate penalties for what can only be considered as piracy and aggravated trespass? Attempting to steal the keys to the cars to prevent unloading is pretty pathetic, presumably they don’t know duplicate keys are available.
The Greenpeace members I know personally all pollute the air with smoking tobacco and other substances, and can not acknowledge the harm that does to people’s health.
If they had dynamite for brains I doubt that they could blow a parting in their hair.
I agree with comments by Ric. Says it all.
Isn’t this piracy on the high seas? Greenpeace activists should be hanged from the yard arm. It will just be a mater of time before diesel is back in favour, it depends on which scientists get the most publicity or payback. By the way, can anyone tell me how a “tonne” of CO2 can float upwards? A tonne of coal, sand potatoes would hit the ground
It’s due to density, not weight.
No I would not
Why is it just cars, why is the public penalised. So just diesel cars are going to stop pollution. Surly all the big ships, HGV’s Buses, need I go on, What do they run on. Has the world gone mad?
Ban old diesel trains, buses & lorries, Northern has lots of old diesel trains (shit buses on rails) diesel car are far more powerful for towing & even though eco-power is coming more powerful won’t be as powerful until 2020 say experts, Mrs May isn’t helping at anything she’s slowly becoming the next David Cameron
Are these protesters going to give me money to change my new diesel car to a nice new Tesla?
total nutters they need to get a life and not tell others how to run theres .
Greenpeace = eco terrorists.
It is always cars that get targeted when it is obvious that most pollution is caused by power stations, cruise liners, aeroplanes, lorries, buses and vans – in that order. Why not clean those up first – big corporates can afford it. Joe Public can’t afford an electric or hybrid car.
It’s ironic that Greenpeace campaigns against the cleanest and safest energy source of them all, namely nuclear energy.
It is about time greenpeace got a life who care’s what they think
It’s noticible that there isn’t one comment in support of greenpeace . They are publicity conscious, but incorrect.all cars pollute, petrol and diesel in slightly different ways. Petrol more poisonous CO, still NoX, latest diesel with exhaust injection possibly even less NoX than petrol. Any diesel and petrol car over 10 years old is more polluting than modern, less than 5 years old, large cruise liners can be seen producing smoke particularly in the startup phase, with their huge engines, probably produce enough pollution to equate to 1000 diesels each doing a million miles. Look at all the ships, all have engine lives of at least 10 years. Old technology. Modern cars still pollute, but only a tiny fraction of the whole scene.
Ps should we ban volcano eruptions,???? they can produce massive amounts of toxic gasses in seconds. (Tongue in cheak).
CO2 is not poisonous at the levels produced by cars. It’s an integral part of the ecosystem that plants require as food, and necessary for the production of the oxygen we breathe through photosynthesis. The more CO2 there is in the atmosphere, the better plants grow.
Why don’t they all get a job ,nd they would not have time to do all this ,I hav`nt got time to go up pylons with banners ,my times taken up trying to earn a living. They are all probably on benefits .Corbyns warriors what a shower.
They need to get a job, the tree hugging lunatics. How did they travel to Sheerness, did they cycle or walk? Hmmm maybe they travelled by coach – diesel, train – possibly diesel, but probably by car – you’re not telling me the tree hugging loonies all drive electric cars or cycled there. By the way, what about the pollution to make the batteries for electric cars & the pollution to charge them up? What powered their boats? Or did they row them out! These people make my blood boil!!!!!!!
Wow 37 hybrids out of 1000 vehicles, that’s impressive VW
They can’t seriously import things that consumers won’t order or buy.
DVLC says there are 36.7 million vehicles registered in the UK. So 37 per thousand is proportionately 1.36 million EVs. That’s significantly better than the current ratio.
Not all micro-particulates come from fuel. Current estimates are that tyre and brake wear release about the same quantity of particulates as the ICE. So even an electric car makes about 50% of the particulates that a diesel does.
NOx is not all bad. The ozone layer is mainly being destroyed by millions of tons of CFC refrigerants released to the atmosphere, which catalyses ozone (O3) becoming oxygen (O2). CFCs are very stable and persistent, and NOx is one of the few things that decomposes CFCs. So diesel pollution is good for the ozone layer.
Back to petrol? It wasn’t so long ago that we were adding Lead Tetraethyl (brain damage) and Benzene (carcinogenic) to petrol to improve its combustion characteristics.
Unbelievably, both Leaded fuel and CFCs were invented by Thomas Midgley while he worked for General Motors (who also owned Frigidaire). His dead was somewhat ironic.
Don’t use soft language to describe what these criminals were going to do. They weren’t going to ‘confiscate’ keys, they were going to steal them, while trespassing. Using soft language legitimises their criminal acts. Call a spade a spade. They’re criminals.
I read about the Greenpeace act of piracy a few weeks ago, but I haven’t heard about any arrests or prosecutions. Can anyone enlighten me?
I’m sure we all agree that clean air is a good thing, but there’s too much hype about the current diesel scare. Air pollution today is far less than it was back in the 1950s, when there were steam trains and most people heated their homes with coal. We’re told that air pollution is causing early deaths, and yet we are living longer than ever! When asked if the current levels of pollution were causing deaths, one expert said: Yes, it is; it’s shortening our lives by about 2 days! All this indicates that we need a more pragmatic approach to the situation, and don’t forget that CO2 emissions, which diesels produce less of compared to petrols, are a danger to the whole planet via global atmospheric warming.
Does Greenpeace protest when councils put in emission causing road humps and other traffic calming measures?
Does not the Greenpeace ship run on the most dirtiest of diesel?
These people are just anti-car; end of story!
In 2015 the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution (COMEAP) stated that 29,000 people die of air pollution, in the last few months they admitted that they might have got it wrong. But of course not much in the media about that!
Plus Greenpeace keeps repeating this ‘fake-news’
Sadiq Khan’s latest transport strategy (do not forget coming to a town near you) once adopted in London, just wants all cars including fully electric out of greater London and is going to achieve this by limiting parking places and reducing speed limits to bicycle speed; 20mph.
So carry on driving your diesel and save yourself about 25% on fuel bills!
Green peace has lost its way
Why are these halfwits not locked up in prison for causing criminal damage?,it is not up to a small minority of so called activists to dictate what i should or should not purchase with my money .Trains,Lorries ,Buses and Taxis with their engines running continuously cause more city centre pollution than any other vehicle ,however I suppose you have to be a brainless knumbskull to join Greenpeace.
No doubt the ship that Greenpeace targeted produced more pollution in it’s crossing than all the cars on board would in a year.
Surely confiscating the keys would amount to theft of all the cars, as they intended to permanently deprive their legitimate owners, whoever they maybe, of these cars. Why do the always think it is right to break the law no matter what and no matter what they say they are extremists who think they are right just like all other extremists and brook no argument from anone else.
Whatever the truth of the matter, being antidiesel is trendy at the moment. The trendies will move on and we will be able to get at the truth sooner or later. And yes – I do own a diesel car.
Hope the Greenpeace members remember their anti-diesel campaign, and boycott their Buses/Cabs home, not to mention anything purchased in the shops/on the Internet. If you’ve BOUGHT it – a Truck BROUGHT it!
What about the “Rainbow Warrior” that will run on marine diesel I imagine, which apparently is the dirtiest form of diesel of all.
When all the diesel and petrol cars are replaced with electric vehicles, how are they going to charge them? Most electricity is generated by gas, oil or nuclear power stations, these power stations are not good for the environment, and we have already been told that they will struggle to cope with the electricity demands in the next few years. Perhaps Greenpeace should be asking the government about that instead.
Greenpeace protesters will be telling us to ditch our cars and use public transport. Much of which runs on… diesel.
Maybe the Greenpeace folk are prepared to walk 7-8 miles or more in the dark and rain to get home after an evening out when public transport has ceased to run. Round here that could be 14:00hrs on a Tuesday or 18:30 on or not at all on a Sunday. depending on where you live. Surely I’m not the only person in the country who goes to places where there is NO public transport or goes out in the evenings after the last bus has gone, never mind about coming back!
Cure the log burning first, this pollutes the air far more than diesel cars do.
This also means the atavist burning wood at there campsites to keep warm.
Talking of campsites, it is a very big industry to the UK. How would you tow a caravan with an electric car?
Sadly, many modern diesel cars are more “real life” polluting that those of 5 years ago so as to be able to pass the EU lab tests. Some diesels are really clean, a Porsch Panamera 4.0 for instance, some really dirty like a Nissan Qashqai. You can check the figures on http://equaindex.com/ – its very interesting.
Some small diesel cars are giving off more N0x than an HGV pulling a 20 ton load. That sounds completely counter intuitive, but I have no reason to doubt the company doing the measurements, if they were so biased would they say a Panamera 4 litre is clean?
Shipping diesels are a huge problem. Batteries from huge numbers of electric cars are likely to be a problem. Nuclear power is potentially a monster problem – note Chernobyl and Fukushima, and thats without considering what to do with the waste.
The real problem that we have is that with our current technology we have far too many humans on the earth, and we are too greedy.
I would buy a electric car but at this moment they are extremely expensive and the range on these cars are limited
Greenpeace need to do a bit more research before they protest against new diesel cars they are not the problem. If we checked every car that a Greenpeace member drove I guarantee you there would be a number of them that were more polluting than any new car. Compared to the rest of Europe the UK is a drop in the ocean I grew up on holidays in Portugal and 20 years ago petrol cars were rare and it was all about diesel it’s not changed much now either and you don’t see them dropping like flies. That’s not even mentioning pullution by lorries, planes and boats. Greenpeace fight for health and peace for everyone but are focusing there efforts on the wrong thing it’s an absolute joke.
I totally agree with Ric.Greenpeace are a joke.
Even Dr Patrick Moore, who left Greenpeace in 1986,now calls it an “‘evil organisation” which has “lost concern for humans.”
Errr don’t Greenpeace have some clapped out rusty sh*t heap of a boat the runs on marine diesel..or am I wrong and it runs on pixie dust???? That turd of a ship will give out more pollution than all the VAG cars on the planet for christ’s sake. Greenpeace are just a big bunch of hypocritical morons!
Don’t act and talk like someone with no education. I am sure you are not doing yourself justice. I worked for Greenpeace for many years as an International campaigner. At that time early eighties my and other staff earned around £45 pounds per week. Everyone else in the UK office lived in London and its environs whilst my home was in Cornwall with a commute to London each week. Not one of the other staff members owned a car but used public transport all the time. My wife needed a car all the time in Cornwall as we do today. Our nearest bus route is almost a mile away as public transport in the countryside is even worse today. State Pensioners like us (no other pension) will never be able to afford a new car. I am now 75 and I doubt whether I will see an electric car in my price range even second hand. So come on Fellow Greenpeace members what are we suppose to do?
Maybe if they protested about the rundown state of public transport and the fact that it is overpriced and therefore not a viable alternative to using any type of private vehicles.
No vechical runs on fresh air. They all have some footprint therefore doing some damage. Bunch of fools.
Totally agree with all that’s been said before. If these lunatics would channel their efforts into something that would be helpful and positive, maybe I then wouldn’t tell them to go and get a proper job!
Greenpiece appear to be jumping on the bandwagon here, not just the Volkswagen, in their usual neo-thug fashion.
I’m fully in agreement with the first comment from Ric.
Greenpeace are anti anytihing to do with the Internal Combustion Engine even if it’s built to the highest standard. Do they really expect us to go back to horse and cart? I know of one senior environmental executive whose car was a VW diesel estate but ancient! Pot, kettle, black – do as we say not as we do.
I work in Kent for a transport company that collects cars from the port, and have been told that the protesters arrived in an old diesel coach! I was also sat at York station a few weeks ago and was disgusted at the quantity of fumes coming from the diesel trains, far worse than any of our vehicles.
Yes all very interesting but pointless, particularly as diesel not much different in pollution to petrol engines now. Also, will Greenpeace eventually recognise the very considerable pollution effects of battery production for Hybrids? Agree, they need to start researching properly to establish real facts.
In any case, not much point in targeting a ship as small as 23-tonnes!
How about getting all oil-fired home boilers fitted with catalytic converters? Just think of all those millions of houses spewing forth the filth each winter… Leave us diesel drivers alone!
Gas boilers also emit a similar chemical mix as oil boilers and diesel cars, though in lower quantities than the latter.
Greenpeace hypocrisy again. When are the courts going to dish out appropriate penalties for what can only be considered as piracy and aggravated trespass? Attempting to steal the keys to the cars to prevent unloading is pretty pathetic, presumably they don’t know duplicate keys are available.
The Greenpeace members I know personally all pollute the air with smoking tobacco and other substances, and can not acknowledge the harm that does to people’s health.
If they had dynamite for brains I doubt that they could blow a parting in their hair.
I agree with comments by Ric. Says it all.
Isn’t this piracy on the high seas? Greenpeace activists should be hanged from the yard arm. It will just be a mater of time before diesel is back in favour, it depends on which scientists get the most publicity or payback. By the way, can anyone tell me how a “tonne” of CO2 can float upwards? A tonne of coal, sand potatoes would hit the ground
It’s due to density, not weight.
No I would not
Why is it just cars, why is the public penalised. So just diesel cars are going to stop pollution. Surly all the big ships, HGV’s Buses, need I go on, What do they run on. Has the world gone mad?