• THE news that temperatures in the Antarctic were a staggering 40 degrees above normal last week and in the Arctic 30 degrees above normal is the latest alarming wake-up regarding the climate crisis.

Just before that the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that the window of opportunity to reduce carbon emissions so we retain a habitable climate on Earth is rapidly closing.

Yet at the same time, with war raging in Ukraine, our leaders have announced plans for yet more fossil fuel extraction to replace that lost from Russia.

Since Cop26 the government has approved one new oil and gas field in the North Sea and proposes to approve six more; this despite research showing that to permit just a 50 per cent chance of staying within 1.5°C of heating, rich states need to end all oil and gas production by 2034.

Against this grim backdrop Islington XR will be taking part in another global rebellion in April, to demand our government stop this mad rush towards ecocide, to stop all new investment in fossil fuels and hold the financial institutions which continue to place profit before people accountable and not reward them with public subsidy.

We will make our Declaration of Rebellion on the Town Hall steps in Upper Street at noon on Saturday April 2 and a week later, on April 9, join thousands of rebels from across the UK in Hyde Park to begin another period of disruption to the workings of parliament in Westminster and to the business of commerce in the city until their infatuation with fossil fuels ceases.

We are almost out of time to stop the mad rush towards ecocide, that is, the destruction of a benign and sustainable environment for human (and animal) life on this planet.

It is very late but not too late to turn things around so we encourage your readers to join us, on April 2 or 9, or both. We will not be bystanders as this catastrophe unfolds.

https://extinctionrebellion.uk/next-uk-rebellion/
You can contact Islington XR via https://www.xrislington.earth/

JULIA CAMERON
on behalf of Islington XR