London marchers call for ‘urgent’ climate action
The march also calls for an Environmental Rights Bill to establish the right to a healthy environment
Daily TribuneThe march also calls for an Environmental Rights Bill to establish the right to a healthy environment
BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP ) — Thousands of protestors from across the UK marched through central London on Saturday to call for “urgent political action” on nature.
The “Restore Nature Now” march was joined by some 350 charities ranging from protest groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion to more mainstream organizations like the National Trust and World Wildlife Fund.
People came from “all over the UK,” according to one protestor, with a list of demands including making “polluters pay” and improving support for farmers in an increased “climate-friendly farming budget.”
The march also called for an Environmental Rights Bill to establish the right to a healthy environment in the next parliament following a general election next month.
Protesters weaved down one side of Hyde park in the British capital, marching past Downing street to Parliament square dressed in wildlife-themed costumes and donning quirky headgear and masks.
Accompanied by songs, chants of “restore nature now” and more than one drum circle, protestors called for climate change and nature to be prioritized in the election campaign and by the next government.
British actor Emma Thompson led the march, saying that her message was for the government to “stop being so deeply, deeply irresponsible.”
Thompson told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the march that she couldn’t believe the “lack of engagement” of political parties during the ongoing election campaign.
“We’re in the eye of the storm... Everyone cares about the beauty of our islands and we are losing it so fast,” she added.
She was joined at the front of the procession by wildlife TV presenter and activist Chris Packham, who criticized politicians for “not taking the action that they need to rapidly enough and broadly enough,” adding that he was “not terribly impressed” with parties’ election manifestos.
“So we have to stand up and make sure that they understand that we’re going to hold them to account,” he told Agence France-Presse.
‘Not enough’
One protestor wanted to see water companies nationalized by the next government.
Carrying cut-outs of fish, Frances Dismore from a river restoration group said, “all these cardboard critters that we’re carrying today, we’ve met in person on our river, so we’re very much concerned about safeguarding them.”
Dismore added that the river that she was campaigning for, the River Lea in north-east London and east England, was “impacted by all the issues that all other rivers in England are impacted by.”
River and water cleanliness has been a hot topic this election, with several sewage spill scandals over the last few years drawing the ire of climate activists.
Earlier on the campaign trail, leader of the smaller Liberal Democrats party fell off a paddleboard into a lake to demonstrate the severity of England’s sewage crisis.
