Mass arrests resulted on Saturday as thousands of people and members of the ‘Extinction Rebellion’ movement—for “the first time in living memory”—shut down the five main bridges of central London in the name of saving the planet, and those who live upon it, from destructive over-consumption, runaway greenhouse gas emissions, and the ongoing failure of global leaders to address the compounding and intensifying threats.
“People are risking their liberty in defense of the living world in very large numbers. It is only when we are prepared to take such action that people begin to recognize the seriousness of our existential crisis.”
—George Monbiot“The ‘social contract’ has been broken … [and] it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the government’s inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel to defend life itself,” Gail Bradbrook, an Extinction Rebellion organizer, explained to the Guardian.
Tiana Jacout, another protest organizer, told the BBC that shutting down the bridges was “not a step we take lightly,” but “if things continue as is, we face an extinction greater than the one that killed the dinosaurs” millions of years ago.
“We have tried marching, and lobbying, and signing petitions,” she added. “Nothing has brought about the change that is needed.”
As of this writing, dozens of arrests had been made with many thousands more still holding ground on the Soutwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster, and Lambeth bridges.