George Monbiot on the record jail terms given to Just Stop Oil activists

Loading player...

Last week, five supporters of the Just Stop Oil climate campaign who conspired to cause gridlock on London’s orbital motorway were sentenced to lengthy jail terms by a judge who told them they had ‘crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic’. Columnist and campaigner George Monbiot tells Ian Sample why the sentences are so significant, how they fit into a crackdown on protest in the UK in recent years, and what impact they could have on future climate activism in the UK. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

22 Jul 2024 English United Kingdom Science · Nature

Other recent episodes

Why can’t the world get its act together on plastics?

After three years of negotiating, talks over a global plastics treaty came to an end in Geneva last week with no agreement in place. So why has it been so difficult to get countries to agree to cut plastic production? Madeleine Finlay hears from Karen McVeigh, a senior reporter for…

19 Aug 15 min

Staying cool in Europe’s record-breaking heat

Europe is suffering from another heatwave as deadly temperatures of up to 44C hit the continent and wildfires blazed across the Mediterranean. To find out why Europe is heating faster than anywhere else, Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s Europe environment correspondent, Ajit Niranjan, and to Adam Taylor, professor of…

14 Aug 16 min

Is sunscreen really toxic?

For many of us, slathering on sunscreen to protect our skin in the summer months is a no-brainer. But recently social media has been awash with influencers airing their concerns about the potential dangers of this seemingly innocuous product. So is there anything to the claims that sunscreen is toxic?…

12 Aug 17 min

Summer picks: Where do our early childhood memories go?

It’s a mystery that has long puzzled researchers. Freud called the phenomenon infantile amnesia, and for many years scientists have wondered whether it’s a result of failure to create memories or just a failure to retrieve them. In this episode from March 2025, Ian Sample speaks to Nick Turk-Browne, a…

7 Aug 18 min

Summer picks: what is ‘mirror life’ and why are scientists sounding the alarm?

Recently, a group of world-leading scientists called for a halt on research to create ‘mirror life’ microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an ‘unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth. Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay about why this work initially seemed exciting for scientists and what the risks…

5 Aug 19 min

All episodes