Shell, Greenpeace & Carbon Capture

John Elkington

February 21, 2012

Just back from a Shell reception at the National Gallery, the frontage of which – overlooking London’s Trafalgar Square – had been draped with a large banner by Greenpeace. Spoke to a couple of the protestors outside, then went in, holding their brochure rather conspicuously. Various Shell people asked to be shown what Greenpeace were saying about them. Amazing how easy it is to be a babelfish, sometimes.

Upstairs, the galleries where the reception was being held were unbelievably crowded, infernally hot, unbearably noisy, and the median human content was white, male, over 60 and besuited. Not exactly my ideal habitat, with tinnitus and the rest.

So after a quarter of an hour, mainly spent looking at the Claudes and Turners, plus a couple of exquisite portraits of Cardinal Richelieu, whose time zone I am pleased not to have crossed, I ducked back out into the night. A London these days of ubiquitous road-works, presumably because we are towards the end of the financial year for local government and heading into the foothills of the Olympics.

I had walked across to Trafalgar Square from Bloomsbury Place, where the rest of the day had included filming by HP, both inside the office and out in Bloomsbury Square, a session with the Value Web on our TEDx event for May, and a meeting with Nigel Tuersley – who I first met in the days of the Earthlife Foundation, where I was a Trustee. He is now working on a number of intriguing projects in the area of carbon capture and sustainable energy. One of the companies he’s linked with these days is Carbon Engineering.

Earthlife worked on such challenges as rainforest conservation in Cameroon, a campaign built around the films of Earthlife co-founder Phil Agland. His latest film on the Baka people of Cameroon was on BBC TV just a few nights ago. A depressing account of what has happened to the Baka people (including further rainforest destruction and rampant alcoholism) since Phil made his first film in Cameroon, but also illuminated by the humour and grace of at least some of those he filmed this time around.

Earthlife eventually crashed, but I have often said that it was like a neutron star, spewing out necessary components for the next generation of life and initiatives. That really was a gruelling period, but out of it formed organisations like SustainAbility. It’s amazing how if you live long enough, circles not only close but also open out into new spiralling loops of ideas and opportunity.