The climate campaign group will be protesting across London for two weeks, similar to the demonstrations it carried out in 2019
Extinction Rebellion have begun a two week series of climate protests in London with activists demanding that the UK government stops new investments into fossil fuels.
The campaign group is expecting thousands of people to take part in their “Impossible Rebellion”, which is set “target the root cause of the climate and ecological crisis”.
The protests began on Monday morning, with climate activists gathering within Trafalgar Square, in what is nows the group’s fifth mass demonstration.
Gail Bradbrook, the co-founder of the group, gave a speech expressing solidarity with nations that are being disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.
Campaigners have been seen holding placards with messages including “Code red, where’s the action” while four people had been dressed as the sea in a warning over the issue of rising ocean levels worldwide.
This comes after UK prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to ask US President Joe Biden to keep American forces in Afghanistan beyond the 31st of August in order to allow evacuation flights to continue.
Activists have scheduled demonstrations at both St James’ Park, and Piccadilly Circus, similar to the protests that were carried out in 2019.
More protests are also expected to take place within both north and south London.
In a statement, Extinction Rebellion has said that it will “take to the streets again, with plans to disrupt the City of London to target the root cause of the climate and ecological crisis – the political economy”.
The disruption in the streets will be continuing until the government agrees to stop all new fossil fuel investment, the group has said.
Extinction Rebellion has garnered support from many celebrities, including comedian Stephen Fry and Game Of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn.
Fry praised the group on Twitter for attempting to “make politicians really recalibrate, realign, revolutionise politics” through their “mucky” and “disruptive” demonstrations.
And Flynn, who played Bronn in Game Of Thrones, attended a protest on Sunday at the Guildhall building in central London, where three activists scaled the entrance of the building.
Around 200 people were there, as the trio sprayed red spray over the walls of the building and unfurled a banner reading “co-liberation freedom together”.
The Game Of Thrones actors said it was “more urgent than ever” for people to take a stand.
“We’ve got used to certain systems that are life destructive, we created them, we’ve become addicted to them and we know the world is burning as a result,” he said.
“It feels needed and more poignant and more urgent than ever to come together.
“It’s time to collaborate, there are so many things that are trying to polarise us and pull us apart.”
A total of nine people were arrested on Sunday at the protest, the Met Police said.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and a further five for conspiracy to cause criminal damage.
This comes after a man has been arrested and an officer injured after a group of protesters claimed to “seize” Edinburgh castle, citing article 61 of Magna Carta. The arrest at Edinburgh Castle was made for “disorder related offences” and minor injuries were sustained by the officer during the arrest, police said.
Another person was detained for going equipped to cause criminal damage and all nine are held in police custody.
On the upcoming protests, the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner Matt Twist said: “We’ve got a significant operation in place lead by an experienced command team to effectively provide a proportionate response to what is going to be a protracted demonstration over two weeks.
“We understand why this is such an important cause, no one is oblivious to that, what we don’t want is for people who are protesting to impact on the rights of others.
“We don’t want serious disruption caused to London – the August bank holiday is one of the busiest of the year and we know this will mean officers are extracted from their local boroughs and brought into the centre of London to deal with this protest.”
