A small group of youth activists locked their necks to the U.K. Parliament’s gates Friday to demand urgent government action to address the global climate crisis while young people worldwide took to the streets as part of the weekly school climate strike.
The demonstration came two days after Parliament made history by passing a motion put forth by Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn to declare an environment and climate emergency.
But, as Extinction Rebellion London said on Twitter, “a declaration is not enough.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” 14 members of Extinction Rebellion Youth—aged 13 to 23—wrote in a letter to Parliament on Friday, detailing why they decided to lock themselves to the gates.
“The government’s inaction up to this point has compelled us to act, and although we do not want to be doing this, we feel we have no choice.”
The letter included a pair of demands to follow Parliament’s emergency declaration:
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- Act Now—to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emission to net zero by 2025.
- Beyond Politics—create and be led by a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
“By meeting our demands a future could be secured for not only our generation but all those still to come, but not doing so will condemn us further,” they wrote. “We are currently locked onto your gates and in doing this, hope to highlight our dependency on the government’s actions and our desperation.”
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