12/11/2001

The campaign’s old site, launched in May this year, saw a large number of users both from the UK and around the world, but the new site is expected to give a huge boost to the boycott against Esso, the No. 1 Global Warming Villain.

Stopesso.com has been built by a group of web professionals inspired by the aims of the StopEsso campaign. They have worked after hours and at weekends, entirely voluntarily, over the past 3 months, to build a state-of-the-art back-end system which allows and inspires local activity.

The new site has gone live in time to support Stop Esso Day on 1 December which will see people campaigning outside hundreds of Esso stations across the UK and Ireland.

Anyone visiting the site can, in just a couple of mouse clicks:
* Find nearby Esso garages to boycott by simply typing in their postcode;
* Sign up to join the Stop Esso Day events;
* Automatically fax that station to let them know Esso's policies are losing the company a customer;
* Pledge to boycott Esso, and receive a free "e-certificate" which can be placed on their Website, or emailed to friends. This pledge counter will dynamically change every minute on thousands of sites and show exactly how the campaign is growing;
* Join a local discussion list with others boycotting the station.

The automatic creation of local discussion lists is a first in the Web world, and could have an impact beyond the Esso campaign, as thousands of British citizens are put in direct contact with others in their area who are concerned about the environment and global warming.

International visitors - over a third of all those who visit the Stop Esso site - aren't forgotten either. They can find out details of how the campaign is organised in Britain, and be put in touch with global groups fighting Esso's [ExxonMobil’s] policies.

"Stopesso.com is using the best web technologies to tackle Esso, the world's biggest company and number one global warming villain. With our new site we can not only deliver the StopEsso campaign at a very local level but also to our international boycotters," said Lorne Stockman, Stop Esso Co-ordinator. "Stop Esso Day is about finding your local station and boycotting it - just what stopesso.com is designed to deliver."

"We're delighted to be able to apply the unique decentralising powers of the
web to help such an important, global, campaign," said James Cronin, spokesman for the site's volunteer Web professionals.

"Some people warned that in the 21st century, the Internet would cut us off from the world's problems and our own community. We hope www.stopesso.com will put people back in touch with their neighbours, and help them work to beat the most pressing world crisis of all: global warming."

[Previous press release: "Stop Esso campaign to step up protest on December 1"]
[Next press release: "Stop Esso Day a Massive Success: 306 Esso Stations Boycotted"]