It breaks my heart and I feel so absolutely at the core of my being that
we have to do something!
And I feel like how could I not, having known the facts?
And so I'm here to try do that: to try and stop disasters from happening
that will cripple healthcare service
If you're asking nicely and nobody's listening
the only thing that you have left to do is become impolite.
So I've been involved in climate campaigning for 12 years, I didn't know
I've always been an environmentalist but I didn't really know climate change was so urgent.
I wasn't part of the April rebellion but that's the point where
I sort of heard about XR and it just, I don't know, it spoke to me
on some level that was calling me I think
I'm here today representing animal rebellion,
we are a group that is allied with extinction rebellion
"Hey, what's this all about?", you know, so we've all investigated it,
we found out that the science is right and very urgent
We focus on the impact of the fishing and animal farming
that industry's impact on global climate change as well as all the
suffering of the lives of the animals.
The ocean is being flooded with plastic, with waste, with oil
And particularly having daughters, and my middle daughter is very interested in the cause as well,
I feel like how could I not, having known the facts?
I was working as a doctor, a medical doctor, and I'm terrified of
the health implications of climate change.
Make sure that that stays a part of the conversation, and that we keep the animals in mind
when we're making decisions about moving forward in climate change and moving towards a
kinder world, with a sustainable plant-based food system.
So I teach refugees and political asylees from countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador
So we've campaigned, we voted, we've written, we've talked to our friends till they're
blue in the face fed up with hearing us!
It just doesn't make sense for us to be treating people in hospitals when climate change could mean horrible
disasters for people, food shortages, cholera, and disease and illnesses we're
not seen this country for over a hundred years.
No governments are taking action quickly enough, but particularly the UK government isn't.
They might have declared a climate emergency, but they're not actually taking any steps
and they're kicking everything into the long grass and the action has to be immediate.
Our governments around the world are not doing enough!
We have lobbied our MPs and nobody's listening.
I'm quite fearful really, what's happening to our planet,
and you know if I'm honest I don't know that what XR is doing is achievable,
but I want to know, and I want to go down knowing that I made a noise about it.
I think that's as much as I could do.
and so this is important so we can prevent the disasters from happening in the first place
and start developing resilience to disasters when they do come.
We've changed everything about our lives, so, we've built an eco-house
switched off the gas, we've changed, well, everything we can!
We need to get rid of coal / fuel in the environment because it's killing us
and it's gonna kill our next generation because it's really disgusting.
And I know that watching their experiences, being forced out of their
homes which is often linked to climate change related problems going on in their communities:
it breaks my heart and I feel so absolutely at the core of my being
that we have to do something.
And then it's just only so much human beings can do: governments have got to act.
We need renewable energy, we need more wind power, we need cars without diesel
and sometimes if you're asking nicely and nobody's listening,
the only thing that you have left to do is become impolite
and even though I don't think any of us like to be impolite, especially here in Britain
sometimes that's all that's left to you, and that's why we've been here all week.
And so I'm here to try and, yeah try and do that: to try and stop disasters from happening
that will cripple our health care service, and mean we go back to like a health care system
that we haven't had to endure since the Victoria era.
So what I'm here for is extinction rebellion has finally given us hope
And from all the way across the world in California I'm watching as wildfires
you know, destroy my father's lungs, and I felt as if I saw XR in April and I knew
I had to come here and I had to communicate what was going so well here
and what is so beautiful about the community that is being built here and how successful they're being.
Young people are outspoken about it as well.
But, I'm retired, I have nothing to lose! My children of all got to keep body and soul together
and earn their money, so I'm on here on their behalf. My children and my grandchildren.
So that this can come to my community as well and can help my poor students
who are riding these trains possibly losing limbs
because they are so desperate about the climate that is building in their countries,
the tension building in their countries.