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Extinction Rebellion targets Exeter

No oil painting (courtesy: Extinction Rebellion Exeter)

Protests near Cathedral and Met Office

Climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion has begun a series of events in Exeter. Banners on 13 bridges around the city and other prominent sites remind drivers that the fuel powering them contribute to carbon depletion. Music, banners and a band will be at Cathedral Green on Saturday. A picnic on Sunday is to honour children 'lost' to climate change, including those not born. Banks are the target on Bank Holiday Monday. And a group wearing lifejackets will march at the Met Office at Exeter Business Park on Thursday.

Extinction Rebellion is demanding that the UK has no net carbon emissions by 2025. That used to the be aim of Exeter City Futures, a local group combining the public and private sectors that tries to source funding for environmental projects, but they've pushed their target date back to 2030. Extinction Rebellions wants the government to act on climate change with the same kind of energy that it would focus on a war.

Roger Spurr, one of the group's banner team, said: ‘In a few short years a runaway, unstoppable process will begin that will melt the ice caps and raise the sea level until it overwhelms the world’s major cities."

Environment Agency officer Emma  Goodwin from St Leonards  said “Saving lives from covid-19 is pointless if we don’t also address the climate crisis.  This has to mean that our banks invest in ways which support a livable and healthy planet”. 

In a statement, Extinction Rebellion says: "Concern is rising, since already, with global average temperatures 1.1°C above pre-industrial average temperatures, extreme weather such as storms and droughts have become more frequent, including in the UK where people are still suffering due to flooding."

In the past fortnight, parts of Devon including Barnstaple, Exmouth, Plymouth and Torquay have flooded, with unusually heavy rainfall for August and two major storms.

Among the events

Saturday 29 August – street arts festival on Cathedral Green, 3 p.m.
Samba band, banners and climate information. 
 
Sunday 30 August – Exeter Quay, noon, and lost children picnic, Belmont Park, Exeter, 3 p.m.
Honouring "the children already lost, those who will lose their lives in the months and years to come and those we choose not to have because of climate change and ecological breakdown". At the picnic, anyone can speak for a few minutes. If there are more than 30 people there will be two separate picnics in different areas of the park

Monday 31 August – bank protest, Bedford Square, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
An action to symbolically ‘clean up’ banks which invest in fossil fuels, with a particular focus on Barclays which the group says hasn't withdrawn funding from tar sands oil.

Thursday 3 September, march at Met Office

The group will insisting the government acts on the advice of its own expert scientists carrying out research on climate science and impacts

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