Subscribe
Six tiny figures scaling the smooth glass exterior of Europe’s tallest building was quite a sight for hundreds of onlookers gathered at the base of the Shard in London on July 11. Environmental campaigners scaled the 310-metre glass tower to draw people’s attention to Shell’s oil and gas drilling plans in the Arctic.
The idea for the protest was hatched when Greenpeace activists visited Shard’s viewing platform. “Standing there, we realised that we could see three Shell buildings. If we can see them, they can see us as well. So it seemed like the perfect place to get our message across to them,” The Guardian quotes Ben Stewart, head of media at Greenpeace. A group of women Greenpeace activists took up the challenge under the code-name Sigmund—after Freud and his theories on why people climb tall buildings.