Photo: FMJ.co.uk
Volkswagen kicked off the week with a massive protest from Greenpeace activists, outside its UK offices in Milton Keynes.
The protesters, many of them either doctors or hospital staff, blocked the entrances to the office, effectively managing to keep about 800 VW employees to get to work, The Guardian reports. They arranged their protest to look like a mock clinic, where they conducted investigations on staff and passersby, alerting them of how their health could have been worsened after the carmaker cheated in the 2015 emissions scandal.
In addition to protesting against VW for being the number one maker of diesel cars in the country, they also urged the company to fully go electric. The protest lasted until the afternoon and is now being investigated by the police.
In response to this disruption of activity, a spokesperson for the company stresses that they currently have the most “comprehensive electrification initiative in the automotive industry,” hinting that perhaps the protest was a misplaced undertaking.
Not so if VW continues to make diesel cars, Aarash Saleh, a doctor in respiratory medicine, tells the publication. Until VW goes electric, if they continue to make diesel cars, people will continue to die as a direct result of pollution.
“Diesel pollution is causing horrendous suffering across the UK and storing up a lifetime of troubled health for our kids. If you could see it, diesel would be banned tomorrow,” Saleh explains.
“As the UK’s biggest seller of diesel cars, Volkswagen is complicit in an air pollution crisis that’s filling up emergency departments and GP surgeries,” Mel Evans, a clean air campaigner for Greenpeace, adds. “Volkswagen sold us a lie about diesel being clean. Its diesel addiction is seriously harming people’s health. Volkswagen must face up to its responsibility for deadly air pollution and commit to end diesel production now.”
As far as VW is concerned, this won’t happen “now” or anytime soon. The company’s plans include introducing 80 new electric models to its range by 2025, amounting to 25 percent from its entire offering. That percentage should rise to 50 by 2030.
In addition to protesting against VW for being the number one maker of diesel cars in the country, they also urged the company to fully go electric. The protest lasted until the afternoon and is now being investigated by the police.
In response to this disruption of activity, a spokesperson for the company stresses that they currently have the most “comprehensive electrification initiative in the automotive industry,” hinting that perhaps the protest was a misplaced undertaking.
Not so if VW continues to make diesel cars, Aarash Saleh, a doctor in respiratory medicine, tells the publication. Until VW goes electric, if they continue to make diesel cars, people will continue to die as a direct result of pollution.
“Diesel pollution is causing horrendous suffering across the UK and storing up a lifetime of troubled health for our kids. If you could see it, diesel would be banned tomorrow,” Saleh explains.
“As the UK’s biggest seller of diesel cars, Volkswagen is complicit in an air pollution crisis that’s filling up emergency departments and GP surgeries,” Mel Evans, a clean air campaigner for Greenpeace, adds. “Volkswagen sold us a lie about diesel being clean. Its diesel addiction is seriously harming people’s health. Volkswagen must face up to its responsibility for deadly air pollution and commit to end diesel production now.”
As far as VW is concerned, this won’t happen “now” or anytime soon. The company’s plans include introducing 80 new electric models to its range by 2025, amounting to 25 percent from its entire offering. That percentage should rise to 50 by 2030.
BREAKING: medics & Greenpeace activists are shutting down @UKVolkswagen’s HQ & turning it into an emergency diesel pollution clinic. They’re calling on VW to #DitchDiesel because it’s making our air dangerous to breathe pic.twitter.com/APkm5X88wg
— Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) August 20, 2018
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