Climate Protesters Paralyze Central London as Arrests Mount

(Bloomberg) -- Traffic in parts of central London ground to halt as hundreds of climate protesters began disruption set to last for two weeks in the U.K. capital.

For the second time in six months, activists from the group Extinction Rebellion blocked streets and bridges around Westminster and the Houses of Parliament by locking themselves to vans and each other. The demonstrations that started Monday morning are in protest of what they see as slow government action to contain climate change.

“We have got to a point where we actually have to do something,” Jackie Cooper, a 57-year-old former lawyer dressed as Bugs Bunny who had traveled from north west England. “It’s a catastrophe, and we are walking into it blindly.”

A large London police presence mingled with protesters as Christian groups sang hymns and groups of drummers played close to Downing Street. The Metropolitan Police Service said that as of 12:30 p.m. 135 people had been arrested.

The action coincided with similar protests in cities from Auckland to Madrid and Tel Aviv. Those disrupted work at government buildings and financial companies.

The groups are calling for immediate and drastic action to cut fossil fuel emissions and overhaul policies environmental policies to respond what they see as a “climate emergency.”

Among a raft of demands, the movement wants politicians to aim for a net-zero emissions worldwide by 2025, a quarter of a century quicker than the U.K.’s current plans. They’re urging government ministers to establish a citizens’ assembly to analyze climate change and draw up proposals that would feed into legislation.

The movement has caught the imagination of a public, spreading beyond the traditional activist set as the science around climate change becomes more urgent and extreme weather events more common.

“This is the only group that is really saying clearly that our house is on fire,” Chris Horwood, an international aid worker who traveled to the capital from the south west of England. “They’ve looked at the science, as everyone is looking at the science and scratching their heads, and yet this group is saying it is time to act now.”

Extinction Rebellion will now set up camps at around a dozen sites in central London, each with their own theme over the next fortnight. They’re holding events and rallies through the day and night. Officials for the group estimate that at least 30,000 people will take part in London across two weeks.

The latest protest comes weeks after millions of people in 170 countries took to the streets to urge world leaders to take more decisive action on climate. Those protests coincided with a United Nations summit on the issue in September.

“I hope that the politicians will stop talking about things other than the climate, will move out of their positions of total denial or couldn’t care less,” said Claire Sparrow, a 69-year-old grandmother from Nottingham, England. They should “introduce policies which will affect all of us in an acknowledgment of the crisis that we are in,instead of never even talking about it.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson

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