A Welsh Just Stop Oil campaigner who was begged to "stop shouting" on Sky News by Mark Austin as she justified the recent M25 protests said the headlines calling her an "eco-hypocrite" are distracting people away from "the real issue".
Indigo Rumbelow, who grew up on a farm in the Gower near the Loughor estuary, appeared live on Sky News on November 10 to defend the protests which caused four days of chaos on Britain's busiest motorway. She gave an impassioned performance but the headlines the next day described the interview as descending into "a cacophony of noise".
The broadcaster became exasperated when Indigo kept talking over him and then asked if he loved fossil fuels more than his own children. The Daily Mail also condemned the 28-year-old activist for being an "eco-hypocrite" after exposing pictures of her posted on social media allegedly enjoying breaks in Nepal, Sweden, Lithuania and Croatia in her younger days.
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But Indigo, who once glued herself to the M25 for Insulate Britain and was Extinction Rebellion's arts coordinator from North East London, has accused the media of trying to undermine her message and that the articles written about her are "fantasy".
Explaining why she is such a vocal spokesperson for the Just Stop Oil campaign, Indigo said: "Oil is destroying our communities, our health and our economy. The ruthless pathway the UK government is on to extract and burn more fossil fuels will mean total crisis for Wales. It will mean more heatwaves, storms, flooding, food shortages, wildfires, and damage to the infrastructure we rely on, as well as risk of coal tips slipping and mine shaft blowout.
"Think about the Loughor Estuary, where I'm from, for example. The rising sea level threatens not only the marsh, but the housing, transport and energy supply infrastructure. What will that mean for Penclawdd, for Llanelli, and for Bury Port?"
Critics however said the methods used by activists to get their message across only served to damage normal people trying to go about their daily business. Mr Austin said he decision to block the M25 causedg one man to miss his father's funeral and another to miss hospital treatment.
But Indigo, who's grandmother "went on strike at the ICI aluminum factory over women keeping their jobs after men had come back from the war", told WalesOnline that "nothing happens without a struggle". She said: "I urge the critics to understand that climate chaos is bearing down on us, and it is infinitely worse than anything peaceful protest could possibly inflict. The government is not going to stop oil without a battle. The Suffragettes who fought for the right for women to vote broke the law by chaining themselves to railings, smashing windows and disrupting horse races. They were imprisoned, they went on hunger strike, and they were demonized by the media. Their actions caused chaos but they also changed the course of history.
"If the Government won’t act when the whole of the scientific community agrees we’re on a ‘highway to climate hell’ then it’s up to us, the people, to make them."
Speaking to the Guardian in 2019, Indigo said she was inspired to take her first direct action while still a student. She said: "I grew up on a small farm in the Gower, Wales, which is a really beautiful place and so I have always been connected to nature. But my first direct action was marching against student cuts. It was the first time I got really angry and realised that the people in charge are not always right, they don't always know the answers and I needed to get my voice heard out there.
"Two years ago, I went to my first mass action, protesting about the coal mining in a massive area of the Rhineland, Germany. Our group stopped a train from delivering to a power plant. We linked our arms and sat down on the train track. You have an adrenalin rush like you have never felt before.
"It was there that I heard about the Grow Heathrow camp. Living here gives me the freedom to get involved in lots of environmental campaigns, anti-fracking and protests against open cast coal mining in the Pont Valley. We are all one movement, united in fighting for environmental justice. The way society is living now is not sustainable. We have to act now or regret it later."
Even so, holiday snaps from her Facebook and Instagram accounts suggest that she went on 9,000-mile round trips to Nepal on more than one occasion. Seven years ago she shared an image from a plane window on her way to Asia, calling it: 'Cloudland'.
While her interview on Sky News became increasingly irate, at one point almost screaming "Do you love your children more than you love fossil fuels?", Indigo said she was simply trying to communicate that "the fastest way to stop the disruption is to join us".
She blamed the likes of the Daily Mail and the Telegraph as "simply trying to undermine our message". She added: "The articles written about me are fantasy. The billionaire-owned media want us to argue among ourselves instead of realising that their allies, people in Westminster and the City of London, who benefit from fossil fuels are the ones robbing the Welsh people blind, driving up the cost of living while they make record breaking profits and destroying the chance of a safe future for all of us.
"I’d be happy to correct various lies the Daily Mail has printed and the Telegraph has copied, but its probably a waste of time. I think that the media want to focus on hypocrisy as it distracts people away from the real issue - that runaway climate change is here and only collective action can stop it." She said she wished "that in interviews they would focus on the issue not just the tactics".
Essex Police chief constable, B J Harrington, told the Daily Telegraph that his officers had been telling Just Stop Oil that motorways were dangerous places and people will and do get killed. He added: "The only way this is going to stop is if Just Stop Oil frankly grow up and realise, they are putting people’s lives at risk."
It's been reported that Indigo was first arrested at Cannes Lions Advertising Festival in 2019 for gate-crashing a Facebook conference and has been held by police on at least six occasions since then. In 2020 she began digging up the lawn in front of the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government and was arrested again in Parliament Square later that year when she blocked the road.
The morning after Indigo's interview, Just Stop Oil spokesperson Emma Brown told BBC Radio 4 that bringing the M25 to a standstill was "proportionate" due to the millions of deaths and estimated one billion climate refugees the group says will take place due to global warming in the next 20 years.
Tez Burns, 34, a bicycle mechanic from Beaufort Court, Swansea, was arrested for their part in the M25 protests on November 10. One of six people charged with public nuisance, they will remain in custody for over a month until their next hearing in mid-December. Indigo added: "38 people are currently in prison, including Tez and hundreds more people are due to appear before the courts including teachers, lawyers, vicars, doctors, care workers, nurses, and students.. We will keep going, no matter what they throw at us, because what is at stake is much more important than ourselves, it’s the future of Wales and the future of humanity itself. We have no choice but to to try to make the change we need to see."
While some viewers said they were "moved and inspired" by Indigo's words on Sky News, others were less than impressed saying: "So what you're saying is, your Just Stop Oil mates will break the law till it gets what it wants, very much like sulking children. It doesn't work like that. UK's emissions are one the best, pipe down."
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