‘Hell Bus’ drives home campaign against greenwashing amidst week of student activism
From Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th October, the ‘Hell Bus’ was on University of Leeds’ Campus as part of a university tour.
The installation was created by Leeds-born artist Darren Cullen for the 2021 Channel 4 show ‘Joe Lycett Vs the Oil Giant’.
In the show, Lycett, a comedian with a deftness for championing consumer rights, used his trademark satirical style to challenge the false claims of the Shell corporation.
A poster for the event describes the bus as “a travelling pre-apocalyptic satirical art exhibition taking aim at oil company greenwashing”.
Greenwashing is the act of overstating or lying about environmental credentials to appeal to consumers.
Image: spellingmistakescostlives.com
Miniature scenes and mock-posters expose the incompatibility of what these corporations say, and what they do.
Cullen mimics the style and language of their advertising, distorting their image to expose the insufficiency and misleading nature of big companies’ climate efforts.
One display features aspects of a fake strategy in “The Switch to Green Energy”. These include recovering oil from “seabird absorption”, and carbon capture by “burying 1 million bottles of carbonated fizzy drinks deep underground”.
Expert at what we might colloquially call ‘taking the piss’, the satirical work reveals the absurdity that Cullen sees in how corporations react, or fail to react, to the existential threat of climate breakdown.
Image: James Bosher
The bus name and number ‘Hell 2050’, refers to the year by which many governments and companies have pledged to achieve net zero.
One scene references HSBC, NatWest, and Barclays banks.
Accusations of greenwashing against Barclays are particularly relevant given the previous ties to the University of Leeds. Until the new partnership with Lloyds Bank was announced in September 2023, Barclays was the official banking provider.
Whilst the university defended the relationship, some students and staff said it was incompatible with the universities’ sustainability claims.
In response, campaign group Student Rebellion Leeds staged a 12 day occupation of the Esther Simpson building in November 2022.
Image: James Bosher
Their overarching demand was that the university cut all ties to fossil fuels.
In the 2022 Fossil Fuel Finance Report, Barclays ranked 7th worst bank globally, and tops UK-based rankings.
On its website, the bank states: “Barclays is dedicated to helping companies take action to address the environmental and sustainability challenges facing our planet”.
However, since 2019, the bank has made $10bn of credit available to Shell. Barclays classified this as “sustainable finance” despite Shell being the 5th largest oil and gas corporation globally.
Environmental organisation ClientEarth reported that Shell’s 2018-2030 emissions will account for 1.6% of the 1.5°c budget.
This number is what scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say is the maximum temperature rise that will not pose a serious threat to life.
The ‘Hell Bus’ is not the only climate activism taking place on campus this week.
Tomorrow, Thursday 12th October, The Gryphon will be live-reporting from the Leeds Just Stop Oil rally at the Wavy Bacon sculpture. The post on Instagram announcing the rally had the song ‘Paint the Town Red’ by Doja Cat attached, and the caption read: “You reallyyyy dont want to miss this…”.
Just Stop Oil is infamous for its use of orange paint in demos, including this week at universities across the country.
This includes in Bristol, where a University of West England (UWE) student was arrested on Monday 9th for spraying orange paint over a University of Bristol building.
The action was in response to the university’s continued partnership with Barclays.
Just Stop Oil runs a national campaign protesting the UK government’s licensing of new oil and gas projects.
Despite pledges to divest, universities nationwide maintain problematic links to fossil fuel companies and the banks which finance them.
Research and climate activist website DeSmog found that since 2022, large fossil fuel companies have pledged £40.4m to UK universities. The universities which received the most funding were Exeter, Imperial College London, and Heriot-Watt.
In 2020, a report by The Independent revealed that the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment received the second highest amount of funding from fossil fuel companies. At £11.2m, this was second only to Imperial College whose earth sciences department received £30.1m.
There was no data available on where funding comes from in 2023.
Asked about its environmental commitments, a spokesperson for the University of Leeds said: “The University is taking a robust approach to tackling climate change with a £178 million Climate Plan that sets out our actions, targets and investments to achieve net zero by 2030”.
