Fred Henderson, Amber Hayward and Erin Emirali have been tirelessly promoting the use of Ecosia – a German-based internet search engine that uses 80 percent of its profits from advertising revenue to reforestation and conservationism projects.

Over the past year, University of Sussex students have carried out more than 600,000 searches using the site which has led to the planting of more than 8,000 trees and the removal of 500 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.

As well as helping make Ecosia the default option for many Sussex students and staff, the trio’s campaign Ecosia on Campus has encouraged and assisted students at more than 60 universities worldwide to start up their own campaigns to promote the use of the search engine leading to thousands more trees being planted.

Making a difference

Now as the three Global Studies students prepare to graduate this summer, the University of Sussex IT Services team have announced their support to increasing the Ecosia use on campus even further, helping to create a legacy for all of Fred, Amber and Erin’s hard work.

Amber said: “The environment is really on the minds of our generation around the world. It’s sometimes difficult to know how you can best make a difference but with Ecosia you can make a positive difference while doing something you would do many times a day regardless. You just have to use Ecosia instead of your normal search engines.”

Erin said: “We’re really proud of what we’ve managed to achieve. It’s been really surprising how much it has taken off but we’ve always been able to manage it and it’s never got too big for us three to manage alongside our studies.”  

Fred said: “We’re really keen that this campaign continues even after we leave the university in the summer. We’ve had a really positive meeting with the university’s director of IT and he has said he is determined that it will continue to grow even when we leave which is great to hear.”

The three students were working together on a course project when they discovered they all used Ecosia. They immediately began thinking about how they could help encourage more students to use the search engine as well.

Environmental impact

Ecosia first launched in 2009 and has since been responsible for more than 50 million trees planted in over 15 countries across the globe including in Indonesia, Senegal and Madagascar.

The website continues to grow in popularity with the rate of searches doubling in the last year alone.

The use of Ecosia really accelerated at the University of Sussex after the campaigners convinced the university’s IT Services team to make Ecosia the default homepage for Microsoft Edge. There are now plans to continue the promotion of Ecosia to increase its use among staff and students even further.

Jason Oliver, the University of Sussex’s Director of Information Technology, said: “The ITS team at Sussex are working to reduce energy consumption and waste wherever we can.  We’re very conscious of the environmental impact that technology can have if not managed carefully.  That’s why we’re proud to recommend and promote the use of Ecosia.”

To mark the success of the campaign, the three students will be planting three Rowan trees outside Chichester 1 building at the University of Sussex on Wednesday 10th April at noon.

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from the University of Sussex. For more information, visit the campaign’s Facebook page.

Sandiaga Uno may have personally benefited from payments made by one of Indonesia’s biggest coal miners to an offshore firm he owned, Global Witness says.

Berau Coal paid at least $43 million between 2010 and 2012 to an obscure offshore company in the Seychelles called Velodrome Worldwide Limited, according to a report released by the NGO.

Sandiaga Uno is running to become the country’s vice president in the April 2019 elections. Popular with housewives and millenials alike, he is widely perceived as the “surprise star of the 2019 presidential election campaign”.

Berau Coal

The multimillionaire, whose net worth is estimated at $360 million, said he has spent “somewhere around” $100 million in the campaign.

Presidential polls published on 21 March showed incumbent Joko Widodo (alias Jokowi) on 53.6 percent versus former general Prabowo Subianto – alongside whom Uno is running as vice-president – on 35.4 percent.

According to Global Witness, the politician’s company Recapital Advisors took ownership of Berau Coal in December 2009. One month later, Indonesia’s fifth biggest coal company contracted Velodrome to advise them on “key strategic, business and operational aspects” for a monthly fee of $2 million.

Uno was Velodrome Worldwide Limited’s only shareholder from its creation in October 2007 to May 2009, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ global database of offshore leaks. The company later passed into the hands of one of Uno’s long-standing business partners, Singaporean lawyer Ng Soon Kai.

In 2012, Berau Coal’s new controlling owners ended the agreement with Velodrome Worldwide Limited. Berau Coal later conceded that the “value of the business” with Velodrome Worldwide was “not clear”.

Foreign investments

Global Witness said Uno, as the co-founder of Recapital which then owned Berau Coal, likely had “a hand in the payments from Berau Coal to Velodrome, and that he may have benefited from them personally in some way”.

The NGO also pointed to tens of millions of dollars worth of suspect payments to co-investor Rosan Roeslani, who is currently head of Indonesia’s Chamber of Commerce, including an undisclosed alleged $3 million pay rise.

Neither Berau Coal, Recapital nor Uno could be reached for comment.

The company has been propped up by foreign investments, $950 million in Berau Coal had been sold by the end of 2012, according to Global Witness.

Financier Nat Rothschild sold his stake in 2015, describing the venture as his “first and last investment in Indonesia’s coal sector”.

Climate change 

Stuart McWilliam, lead climate campaigner at Global Witness, said: “Foreign lenders and investors have enabled the Indonesian coal industry to keep going, despite its well-known association with climate change, deadly air pollution, water and land pollution and recent corruption scandals.” 

Indonesia is the world’s fifth largest coal producer, according to the International Energy Agency.

McWilliam said: “These findings offer yet another potent reason why banks and investors should shun Indonesia’s big coal, and why politicians should withdraw their support for the significant expansion of coal-fired power in Indonesia.”

This Author

Natalie Sauer reports for Climate Home News. She has contributed to a variety of international outlets, including Politico Europe, AFP and The Ecologist. This article first appeared on Climate Home.

Eleven member states and the European Commission refused to sign a declaration they said did not match the bloc’s climate commitments.

The declaration, which is available online, was inked by 17 EU member states plus Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein, at the conclusion of a two-day informal meeting of EU energy ministers in Bucharest last week (1-2 April).

But the Commission and 11 EU countries refused to sign it because the text did not make reference to a proposed EU target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, two diplomatic sources told Euractiv.

Climate neutrality

The 11 countries are: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland.

A diplomat explained: “We tabled amendments to reinforce the language related to the Commission’s long-term strategy” for climate change said one diplomat. Another official added: “But because these amendments were not kept, we were a bit lukewarm.”

Another diplomat from a country which did not sign the declaration was more straightforward. “For us, it lacks ambition,” adding the declaration would have “undermined” the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goal.

While the declaration does mention “climate neutrality” among the EU’s objectives, it does not make an explicit reference to 2050 as a deadline for achieving it.

“We don’t want to open the door to lower ambition for 2050,” the diplomat said in remarks that echoed divisions at a recent summit of EU leaders.

Reducing emissions 

Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the European Commission’s spokesperson for energy and climate policy, confirmed that “the Commission did not sign the declaration for the time being.”

While the declaration does aim to “maximise the potential of the gas infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions,” Itkonen suggested it did not go far enough in supporting the Commission’s long-term strategy, which encourages EU countries to aim for net-zero emissions by 2050.

Itkonen told Euractiv in e-mailed comments: “The European Commission is committed to the climate neutral vision”, adding that “the Commission’s vision intends to set a clear direction of travel” for achieving the targets from the Paris Agreement.

The Romanian presidency, for its part, tried to play down divergences, saying EU member states were still analysing the text and were free to sign up at a later stage.

The Romanian Presidency said: “The declaration on Sustainable and Smart Gas Infrastructure represents an important base for the modernisation of the gas infrastructure with a view to accommodating growing shares of hydrogen and other renewable gases in support of the energy transition and of the Paris agreement.” 

The first diplomat was also quick to play down divisions among EU member states, saying the 2050 reference was the only real sticking point in the declaration. He said: “It’s a question of wording. There were things we wanted included in there, which didn’t make it in the final draft.” 

Carbon alternatives

The declaration itself says the signatories are “convinced that the gas infrastructure will have to play its role in the decarbonisation of the energy system, by preparing itself to transport growing shares of other gases than natural gas, such as hydrogen, biomethane, synthetic methane and by addressing the issue of vented and fugitive methane emissions.”

But Greens have warned that gas industry pledges to decarbonise and promote renewable and low-carbon alternatives were just an excuse to prolong fossil fuel operations for longer.

The Greens in the European Parliament warned in a a paper this week: “There is a high risk that illusionary renewable gas scenarios never materialise and lead to either stranded assets or a high-carbon lock-in.”

In fact, the Greens and the gas industry may have more in common than they think. In a recent interview with Euractiv, gas pipeline operators said they were currently working on joint network plans with electricity operators, which include zero-emission scenarios for 2050.

Jan Ingwersen, general manager of ENTSOG, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas said: “That automatically means there will be no fossil gas in the mix by then.”

The European Commission, for its part, said it would not support new investments in gas infrastructure without a detailed analysis of the carbon reduction they can bring.

Itkonen said: “We intend to analyse the potential role of the gas infrastructure in the future energy system, in order to transport and store near zero carbon hydrogen and renewable gases.”

This Article

Frederic Simon is news editor for EURACTIV, focussing on energy and environment. This article first appeared on Climate Home, and was produced by Euractiv.

A police investigation into conduct by the Meynell and South Staffordshire Hunt was undertaken by Derbyshire Police and based on evidence captured by the animal welfare charity League Against Cruel Sports.

The six accused will put in a plea and a case management hearing will be held.

Joint masters William Tatler and Peter Southwell, former huntsman Sam Staniland, whipper-in John ‘Ollie’ Finnegan, terrier man Andrew Bull and assistant terrier man Sam Stanley, face a charge of hunting a wild mammal with a dog contrary to Section 1 of the Hunting Act 2004.

Hunting Act

The alleged offence is said to have been committed on Saturday, 2 October 2018 in local woodland near Sutton on the Hill in Derbyshire.

Before the Hunting Act was introduced, hunts would train their hounds to kill adult foxes by first training them to hunt and kill young fox cubs living in patches of woodland. When the Hunting Act was introduced that practice was made illegal.

Martin Sims, Director of Investigations at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “We welcome the fact that Derbyshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have brought these charges against the hunt.

“Our polling indicates that the vast majority of the public oppose hunting with packs of hounds, and if proven, these allegations that the hunt are targeting fox cubs would horrify them.”

The case comes 14 years after hunting with dogs was banned in England and Wales with the introduction of the Hunting Act 2004, which came into force in February 2005.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from the League Against Cruel Sports. 

The UK’s carbon emissions in 2018 are linked to the loss of more than 1,000 square kilometres of Arctic sea ice, conservationists have said.

WWF has calculated the impact of the UK’s pollution using research which reveals the reduction in average sea ice cover in the Arctic in September for each tonne of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere.

The conservation charity warned the carbon emissions put out by the UK in 2018 equates to the loss of an area of ice greater than the size of Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham combined.

Satellite

The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the average for the world with severe impacts for wildlife, WWF warned, as it called on the government to declare a “climate emergency”.

Rod Downie, chief polar adviser at WWF said: “What is happening in the Arctic is nothing short of a crisis and the world needs to wake up and act.

“Sea ice decline is one of the most visible signs of climate change on our planet. And it’s not just crucial to Arctic people and species like polar bears and walrus, but to the health of the planet as a whole.

“The bright surface of the ice reflects sunlight away from the planet and back into space, helping to keep our planet cool. “But when this ice melts, it is replaced by dark ocean which absorbs the sun’s rays, heating up our planet.”

He said the 12 lowest Arctic sea ice extents in the satellite record have all occurred in the last 12 years.

Generation

Arctic sea ice reaches its lowest extent for the year around September at the end of the summer melting season before winter weather causes the ice cover to increase again.

WWF wants the UK Government to make climate action a priority, end support for fossil fuels, including stopping fracking and airport expansion, and invest in the clean economy including renewables and electric vehicles.

The charity is also urging ministers to restore the environment at home and abroad, to help nature cope with climate change and commit the UK to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

Gareth Redmond-King, head of climate at WWF said: “We have the solutions at our fingertips, but what we’re missing is the political will to deliver them in time.

“We are the last generation who can halt catastrophic climate change. That is why we need to make our voices heard and fight for our world.”

The call comes as WWF and Netflix’s documentary series Our Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, shows the impact of climate change on the natural world, including the harm to walruses of shrinking sea ice cover.

This Author

Emily Beament is the environment correspondent for the Press Association.

Volunteers are being asked to help save the water vole by taking part in the annual People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) survey and visiting one of 850 pre-selected sites across England, Wales and Scotland between the 15 April – 15 June.

Wildlife charity PTES launched the first ever National Water Vole Monitoring Programme (NWVMP) to help save water voles – the UK’s fastest declining mamma – in 2015.

With their glossy brown or black fur, small round eyes, blunt muzzle and furry tail, water voles are extremely endearing. They are also extremely endangered, having experienced the most rapid and serious decline of any British wild mammal in the last century.

Devastating impact 

There are various factors behind their decline, from loss and fragmentation of their natural habitat (streams, rivers and other fresh waterways) and agricultural intensification, to pollution of watercourses and predation by non-native American mink.

The impact of mink has been particularly devastating – between 1989 and 1998 the water vole population crashed by almost 90 percent.

New sites can also be registered if there isn’t a pre-selected site nearby. Once a site has been chosen or a new site registered, it just needs to be surveyed once and all sightings and signs of water voles along a 500m length of riverbank recorded online here.

Volunteers need to register online and after that simply enter their postcode to find the closest survey site or register a suitable site near where they live. No previous experience is required, but those taking part will need to learn how to identify water voles and their signs, information about which is also on PTES’ website.

Monitoring population 

Last year, 249 sites were surveyed in Britain: 152 in England (from Cornwall to the North Pennines), 92 in Scotland (from the Highlands to East Ayrshire) and 5 in Wales, in areas such as Monmouthshire and Anglesey.

105 sites (42 percent) showed signs of water voles being present, and while this is encouraging, there are gaps in survey areas where PTES needs more help, including mid and south west Wales, the West Midlands, the South West (Somerset & Gloucestershire) and southern Scotland, to get a really clear picture of water vole numbers across Britain.

Emily Thomas, Key Species Data & Monitoring Officer at PTES explained: “Water voles used to be found in almost every waterway in England, Scotland and Wales, but sadly now their numbers are declining dramatically.

“These adorable mammals need all the help they can get, so we hope as many people as possible, in all corners of Britain, sign up to survey a site this spring. We use the data gathered to monitor population trends year on year, which in turn helps to guide our conservation work and inform us where action is needed most.”

To take part in the 2019 National Water Vole Monitoring Programme, and to find out more about water voles click here. 

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from People’s Trust for Endangered Species. 

Image: Peter Trimming, Flickr. 

Almost 250 million people who play the online video game Fortnite every day are being challenged by conservation charity WWF to survive the game – but with a twist.

The #NoBuildChallenge rule is simple: players are expected to proceed through the game without exploiting any of the usual natural resources which allow them to survive and increase their skills: this means no wood, no stone and no metal.

The idea is that the #NoBuildChallenge participants will understand a simple fact: staying alive is difficult without the planet’s natural resources. These players will be encouraged to share this message with their Fortnite networks all over the world.

Earth day

The #NoBuildChallenge campaign was officially launched on Friday 5 April by Solary, the French pro-gamers team, with a live stream on their Twitch channel, which has 730,000+ followers.

Solary includes star gamers such as Kinstaar, Hunter, Nikof and Yoshi. The first #NoBuildChallenge live session drew 7,000 gamers in two hours.

Fortnite has become a space of exchange and creativity and its community of YouTube and Twitch gamers and streamers are also invited to join in and rise to the challenge.

Live games and recorded content will be broadcast to spark a conversation throughout the campaign, which runs until Earth Day on Monday April 22.

The campaign has been created for WWF France by the Paris-based socially-led creative agency We Are Social. It kicks off as students in more than a hundred countries, from Sweden to South Africa, close their books and take to the streets to demand an urgent response to climate change.

Gammer communities

Jacques-Olivier Barthes, Communications Director at WWF France, said: “Survival is a concept that will probably not be virtual in the future, as we continue to consume more resources than the earth is able to offer.

“Quite simply, if we do not change the rules, we will not survive. By engaging Fortnite’s community of young, active players, we hope more and more people will join the fight to preserve our planet.”

Sandrine Plasseraud, President of We Are Social France, said: “The gamer community is mostly young, and they are going to be the inheritors of our planet – a planet whose resources are running out faster every year.

“Gamers are already using their networks to convey positive messages. The idea of ​​the #NoBuildChallenge is to capitalize on this community which is already very committed to meeting our new environmental challenges.”

This Author 

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from We Are Social. 

An international coalition of NGOs – including a group representing more than 300 Brazilian indigenous groups – has called for the European Union (EU) to end its complicity in the assault on indigenous rights and the destruction of the Amazon, on Jair Bolsonaro’s one-hundredth day in office.

Since President Bolsonaro became leader of the world’s fourth largest democracy on 1 January, his government has dismantled environmental protections, incursions by armed invaders on Indigenous Peoples’ lands have surged, and deforestation rates in the Amazon have risen.

The EU provides a huge market for Brazilian soy and beef, which drives deforestation and human rights abuses in Brazil on a vast scale. The EU is also Brazil’s second largest trading partner, and together its Member States are Brazil’s largest source of foreign direct investment.

Unfolding destruction 

The coalition is calling for tough new EU laws guaranteeing that products sold in the EU do not cause deforestation and human rights abuses in Brazil.

Nicole Polsterer, Forests and Consumption campaigner at Fern, the forests and rights NGO, said: “The EU already has laws to stop illegally logged wood, illegally sourced fish and conflict minerals entering its markets.

“The unfolding destruction in Brazil show the glaring need for similar laws for agricultural goods. The EU must clean up its [agricultural] supply chains, make them transparent, and use its enormous economic leverage to reduce the threat Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples face.” 

Sônia Guajajara, coordinator of Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (APIB ) which represents more than 300 Brazilian indigenous groups, reinforced this call for EU action: “The first 100 days of Bolsonaro’s presidency are the latest chapter in a long war of attrition against Brazil’s Indigenous People.

“The crimes that are being committed today are happening in the name of agricultural production. The EU must not evade its responsibility for this.” 

Economic leverage 

Guajajara added: “The EU must use its consumer power to ensure our rights are protected and our forests are preserved.” 

The international call for EU action coincides with the release of a new Fern briefing, 100 Days of Bolsonaro: Ending the EU’s role in the assault on the Amazon, which details the dizzying speed at which environmental laws have been eroded, and land grabs and attacks on indigenous communities have accelerated in the first three months of Bolsonaro’s presidency.

In January 2019, deforestation in the Amazon reportedly rose by 54 perent compared to  the same month in 2018.

The report calls for a new EU law preventing commodities being sold on the EU market which have caused deforestation or the violation of human rights. It also calls the EU to use its economic leverage to protect Brazil’s forests and Indigenous Peoples by suspending its talks for a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the Mercosur trading bloc – of which Brazil is the largest and most powerful member – until Brazil renews its commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, and the deal’s Sustainability Impact Assessment is released publicly and its findings taken into account.

The Mercosur deal should also include binding, enforceable provisions to end deforestation and respect customary tenure rights.

Forest defenders 

The report also argues that the European External Action Service (EEAS) should strengthen the implementation of the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy and include more proactive consultation with Brazilian civil society organisations.

The EU should also monitor and respond to human rights violations and strengthen human rights defenders’ protection mechanisms.

For those most at risk, including Indigenous Peoples and environmental defenders, the EU should provide direct, urgent support where required, including through political representations. 

Perrine Fournier, Fern’s Trade and Forests campaigner, said that signing the Mercosur trade deal as it stands, would exacerbate an already dangerous situation: “The EU says it supports values based trade. Bolsonaro is the litmus test for this.

“Signing the Mercosur deal as it stands would mean renouncing the EU’s commitment to end deforestation by 2020, sacrificing indigenous rights and forests on the altar of trade.” 

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is content editor for The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Fern. 

Image: Marcelo Camargo, Wikimedia. 

A large number of people in Tanzania still live below the poverty line, and we are seeing the devastating effects of climate change, including more frequent and intense droughts and unpredictable rainfall.

This week, I’m attending the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC with a message for World Bank officials from my home country: it’s vital that the World Bank, under its new president, keeps its promises to tackle climate change and becomes a real champion.

This would demonstrate the bank’s leadership on climate change and investments in clean energy, like off-grid solar power to reach the poorest.

Solar lamps

One billion people still live in the dark, without any electricity. Energy poverty is particularly stark in rural and remote regions in Africa.

In Tanzania, less than a fifth of people in rural areas have access to electricity. Off-grid renewables, like small solar systems, often reach rural communities more quickly and cheaply than a central grid, and are safer and cleaner than local alternatives like kerosene.

The Christian Council of Tanzania saw the benefit of this approach, and is working with Tearfund to pilot off-grid renewable projects and to advocate for greater government support. These kind of projects can improve people’s health, education, gender equality and income generation.

For example, solar power has also enabled basic computer classes to be held and has improved teacher retention rates in Tanzania’s rural areas. We have similarly seen how hydro mini-grids have improved health facilities, which with a reliable electricity supply can use microscopes and refrigerators for medicine storage.

A network of women entrepreneurs in Tanzania have substituted kerosene with solar lamps, using the savings for school fees, farming inputs and investment in businesses.

Investment

Rachel is a farmer and tailor in Makutupora in central Tanzania who bought a solar panel with a loan from a self-help group supported by Tearfund. Now that she has a solar light, she can work in the evenings, making clothes to sell to people in the village.

By working three or four hours each evening, she has increased the family’s monthly income from 70–80,000 TZS ($31–35) to sometimes as much as 150,000 TZS ($66).

Off-grid renewables can help support small businesses, enabling them to open longer hours and thereby reach a higher number of customers, increasing profits.

Ali, from the Dodoma region of central Tanzania, has used solar light to open his kiosk in the evenings, selling cattle medicines to farmers when they return from the fields. He’s seen his income more than double, enabling him to buy a plot of land on which he intends to build a house for his family.

We need to see much more investment in initiatives like this in Tanzania and scale them up. Business as usual won’t ensure that the poorest have clean energy.

Energy for all

The World Bank has made steps to increase their investments in off-grid renewables to $600m in 2018, but this is still a small proportion of their overall energy budget.

We need the World Bank to develop a roadmap on how it will ramp up its investments to meet the demand for clean energy in African countries like mine and mainstream off-grid renewable energy into its energy portfolio.

For example, the African Development Bank has set an ambitious strategy to achieve electricity access by 2025.

The World Bank’s investments send a crucial signal to other investors so it must set the direction to clean energy and energy for all.

This Author

Emmanuel Kimbe represents the Christian Council of Tanzania, a Tearfund partner. This Article first appeared at Climate Home News.

Protesters plan to block traffic at four London locations “around the clock” to force the Government to take urgent action on climate change and wildlife declines.

Campaign group Extinction Rebellion said it will take to the streets at Marble Arch, Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge and Parliament Square from Monday April 15 to cause disruption and force the Government to act.

Thousands of people will converge on the four busy locations, peacefully blocking traffic and creating a “festival” of action including people’s assemblies, performances, talks, workshops and food, the group said.

Stand up

Extinction Rebellion is calling on the Government to declare a climate and ecological emergency, to act to halt wildlife loss and bring greenhouse gases to net zero by 2025, and create a citizens’ assembly to deliver action on the environment.

Coaches will bring people from around the country to the protest, where they will be joined by cyclists and marchers who have travelled to the capital by bike and on foot.

The direct action campaign calling for governments to urgently tackle the “climate and ecological emergency” has spread into an international movement and is backed by celebrities, academics and writers.

Actress and activist Dame Emma Thompson said: “Our Government has signed agreement after agreement and broken every single promise they made with staggering regularity.

“It is time to stand up and save our home. There will be talks, politics, music, arts. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, but be prepared to stay. Because now’s the time to save the planet. As we all know, there is no planet B. Be there.”

Families

Jayne Forbes of Extinction Rebellion warned that the window to reduce carbon emissions and halt the “sixth mass extinction” was closing rapidly.

“Extinction Rebellion calls on everyone, regardless of your political or religious or cultural beliefs, to join us as we peacefully disrupt for the future of humanity and for all life on Earth.

“If even a small part of you is sitting at home wondering what to do about the climate and ecological emergency, this is what we need to do. This is the best shot we have, we can’t get a new planet.”

She urged people to book at least two weeks off work, if possible, and bring their tents and families to “rebel for life on Earth”.

This Author

Emily Beament is the environment correspondent for the Press Association.