Extinction Rebellion Cambridge and Extinction Rebellion Youth Cambridge occupied the Sedgwick Museum to protest the Department of Earth Science's fossil fuel connections. The action was part of the "Schlumberger Out!" campaign, which calls on the University to cut ties with oilfield services giant Schlumberger.
This afternoon, a group of protestors entered the museum and staged a colourful and peaceful occupation, with one protestor dressed as a dinosaur and family-friendly activities offered to young museum visitors. Extinction Rebellion members inside and outside the museum engaged the public in conversations about the climate crisis, highlighting the University's fossil fuel ties and providing information about the "Schlumberger Out!" campaign."
The Sedgwick Museum is part of the Earth Sciences Department of the University of Cambridge, a department with numerous fossil fuel connections. For example, the northern Borneo Orogeny Seismic Survey (nBOSS) project helped Schlumberger analysing data from its seismic oil and gas exploration in Malaysia. Other collaborations with Schlumberger include research on fracking, one of the dirtiest and most environmentally destructive forms of fossil fuel extraction, as well as more research with applications in oil and gas exploration.
Schlumberger – which has recently rebranded itself "SLB" – is the world's largest oilfield services company; providing technology and infrastructure for oil and gas extraction, including many destructive and carbon-intensive methods. With operations in more than 120 countries, Schlumberger has enabled some of the worst instances of environmental and social harm by the fossil fuel industry. In the Niger Delta, Schlumberger helped Shell to drill the first commercial oil well, and continues to assist companies which are seriously negligent in preventing and reporting oil spills. The deadly oil pollution in the region is cutting short the lives of local people, who have a life expectancy of just 41 years old.wgo
Yoga, a carer and XR Buddhists member who took part in the protest said, "The Sedgwick Museum is full of wonderful reminders of deep time: how species (such as the dinosaurs) have come and gone, and of how human beings are just one part of the natural world — not masters of it. It seems so ironic that the Sedgwick Museum is intimately connected with Schlumberger — with global fossil fuel extraction which is doing so much to destroy life on earth, including our own species. The fossil fuel industry is much more morally bankrupt than the tobacco industry ever was. The University should cut all its many links with Schlumberger as a matter of urgency."
This action is part of a series of occupations which began on Friday 17 February with a banner drop at the Engineering Department and a family-friendly sit in at the Engineering Department. On Saturday 18 February, XR Cambridge held a mass action at Senate House reminding the University of its moral obligation to cut ties with Schlumberger and its many other fossil fuel industry partners.