The grandparents fighting climate change

On Wednesday, 13 Greenpeace activists lowered themselves from a 500ft high bridge in Portland, Oregon, slinging a network of cables and suspended camping stations across the span to obstruct a Shell icebreaker from its drilling mission to the Arctic.

The activists have enough food and drink to remain in place for days in their makeshift blockade which has already forced the ship to turn back.

Three days earlier, in Bristol, a group of grandparents of a similar size were on their own eco-worrier mission.

Bristol Grandparents for a Safe Earth walked between banks in Bristol in a silent, dignified and polite protest at investments into fossil fuels and the environmental impact they fear will hit their grandchildren worst.

It was their second “direct action” this year, after they visited a string of banks in Broadmead, known to invest in fossil fuels, where some members even went in and closed their accounts.

BREAKING: Shell’s vessel turns back to port. Activists hanging strong. http://t.co/wPgpKDtxfM #ShellNo #SaveTheArctic pic.twitter.com/20Stvk9wa1

— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) July 30, 2015

One of those members is Barry Cash, 65, the youngest in the group of a dozen or so silver campaigners who have been making a nuisance of themselves across the city since coming together in 2012.

“We stand for direct, non-violent, but polite, action,” he says over a cup of tea, describing one of the most exciting recent protests where mince pies were handed out alongside leaflets to customers of RBS.

“We went down because we wouldn’t get an answer from them about their investments in fossil fuels,” he says. “Police are very reluctant to be seen carrying away pensioners,” he adds with a wry smile and glint behind his thick glasses.

“I would have loved to have heard the phone call from the bank manager to the police that day:

– ‘There’s a bunch of protesters outside the bank.’

– ‘What are they doing?’

– ‘They are giving out mince pies.’

“When they came down police said we weren’t doing anything illegal. We said ‘would you like a mince pie’. The officer said they were lovely.”

They might not have been blocking an oil drilling icebreaker, but Barry is quitely confident the group caused a mild disruption in their bid to raise awareness about the threat to future generations.

“It’s a pity because we don’t want to inconvenience people. But if you don’t, people don’t think about things like this.

“I actually think many of the staff that day had sympathy with us and what is going on. They have been delayed a little bit, but when the ‘carbon crunch’ comes, what’s going to happen to these banks?”

He argues that if we don’t do something about climate change now “the consequences are going to be devastating”.

“The ice sheets are melting and Bristol’s entire Old City could be underwater in less than 100 years. That’s the sort of problem we are leaving our grandchildren. It’s gone too far and politicians, well, they are just pissing around,” he adds in a rare moment of indignation.”

Among other ‘direct actions’ the group have been taking since 2012 are sit-ins at other banks and letters written to major pension funds. “There’s a lot of power there and we all have money in them,” Barry says.

With retirement looming, Barry said he felt a responsibility to commit his time to join the group’s battle. “As elder grandparents we have the experience and the desire to leave the world in the right way.”

Aside from the banks, the part-time environmentalist and Lib Dem campaigner, also has a major bee in his bonnet about the European Green Capital.

My personal thoughts are it has been a complete waste of money,” he says. “Stephen Williams did a grand old job of getting the city £7 million, but it has been completely wasted.”

He said he applied for grants for projects himself, but was halted by bureaucracy and unreasonable time limits.

All the money has gone to “beatniks”, he says. “I’ve got nothing against them, but when you see £38,000 go to a tree which makes music when fruit falls, you do wonder.”

“It’s bollocks,” he adds, that indignity getting the better of him again.

“Ice sheets are melting and as we speak right now activists are blocking icebreakers in America,” he says, jabbing his index finger on the table. “We just have to step this up.”