Kicking off a summer-long campaign of civil disobedience and grassroots activism, thousands of campaigners with the Extinction Rebellion movement shut down traffic in five U.K. cities on Monday to demand that the government take immediate and sweeping action to combat the climate crisis and ensure a sustainable future.
Campaigners risked arrest by blocking major roads and bridges in Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, and London with colorful boats named after legendary environmentalists like Polly Higgins, who died of cancer in April.
The boats conveyed a simple message: “Act Now.”
As The Guardian reported, “Protests in each city are focusing on a different ecological threat: rising sea levels, floods, wildfires, crop failures, and extreme weather. According to Extinction Rebellion, more than 3,000 activists across the country have signed up to participate in acts of civil disobedience this week, a third of those in London.”
“We are facing the sixth mass extinction,” said Frances, an 18-year-old Extinction Rebellion activist who took part in Monday’s action. “If there was one thing I could say to our government it would be: Act Now. Our lives are in your hands.”