London - Film star Emma Thompson joined
climate change activists in central London on Friday to read
poetry praising Earth's bounties, part of a series of protests
which have caused transport snarl-ups in the British capital.
Organisers Extinction Rebellion have called for non-violent
civil disobedience to force the British government to reduce net
greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025 and stop what they call
a global climate crisis.
The protests did not cause travel disruption on Friday
during one of Britain's main holiday weekends, but police said
they have arrested more than 570 people so far this week.
Extinction Rebellion has blocked several locations in
central London this week after staging a semi-nude protest in
parliament earlier this month.
"Our planet is in serious trouble," Thompson told reporters.
Picture: Simon Dawson/Reuters/African News Agency (ANA)
"We are here in this island of sanity and it makes me so
happy to be able to join you all and to add my voice to the
young people here who have inspired a whole new movement," said
Thompson, one of Britain's most acclaimed actresses who has won
two Academy awards.
She was one of several actors who read poems celebrating the
beauty of nature from a pink boat lodged by the protesters at
Oxford Circus in central London.
The protesters formed a human chain around the boat, which
officials say has been locked to the ground, making it extremely
difficult for police to remove.
Thompson's appearance followed a demonstration near Heathrow
Airport earlier, where a group of around a dozen teenagers, some
as young as 13 and 14, held a banner alongside a busy road which
read: "Are we the last generation?"
Some of the teenagers wept and hugged each other, although
they were far outnumbered by police.
"I fear for my future" Oscar Idle, 17, told Reuters at
Heathrow. "That fear gives me courage to act."
"I want to live in a society which is not catastrophic,
where there is not going to be food shortages, wild fires and
hurricanes where people can live," he said.