Hundreds of protesters have been photographed performing a “die-in” through a city centre where shoppers are frantically trying to complete their Christmas shopping.
Members of the global climate action movement Extinction Rebellion protested in busy cities to call on county and city authorities to declare a climate emergency.
One protest in Cambridge on 15 Dec caused traffic and disruption on what was set to be one of the busiest Christmas shopping days yet.
The Cambridge group of the “non-violent civil disobedience movement” staged die-ins to protest local inaction on climate change and air pollution.
A die-in is a demonstration in which people lie down as if dead.
They also conducted a slow road walk to Shire Hall – Cambridgeshire County Council offices – where a tree will be planted.
The move comes after a report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change saying the world has 12 years to transform economies and societies to avoid these consequences
Extinction Rebellion Cambridge called on the county’s district council and the city council to declare a climate emergency and prepare a ‘Green New Deal’ with policies to cut air pollution, promote clean energy and green jobs and restore wildlife.
A spokesman for Extinction Rebellion said: “Members in Cambridge are parents, grandparents and teenagers, many of whom are joining an activist movement for the first time in recognition of the seriousness of the ecological crisis and the catastrophic consequences of failing to act.
“Extinction Rebellion was launched in London at the end of October in response to government inaction in the face of climate change and the mass extinction of wildlife.
“Extinction Rebellion wants to see a UK-wide Green New Deal to unleash an unprecedented wave of ingenuity and transformation, and in the process cut air pollution, restore wildlife and create millions of green jobs.”
Last month the group made headlines when thousands of people blocked all five of central London’s major bridges for seven hours.
More than one hundred people were arrested, including members of Extinction Rebellion Cambridge.
Policy makers are currently meeting in Poland to decide the rules of the Paris Climate Agreement signed three years ago.
by Yasmin Harisha