Climate change protesters stage ‘die-in’ beneath museum whale
Stunt takes place after Olympic gold medallist becomes one of 1,000 people arrested in London
CLIMATE change activists staged their latest protest yesterday when they took part in a so called “die-in” at the Natural History Museum.
About 100 members of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) group, some wearing red face paint, veils and robes, gathered beneath the museum’s famous blue whale skeleton – named Hope – to raise awareness of the climate crisis they said was threatening the planet.
Those taking part in the event lay down in the museum’s great hall, with some tourists even joining in. The “die-in” ended after about half an hour, with the protesters breaking into applause.
The demonstration took place as Scotland Yard confirmed that more than 1,000 people, including the former Olympic canoeing champion, Etienne Stott, had now been arrested during the week-long protests in London.
Mr Stott, 39, who won C2 canoe slalom gold at London 2012, was arrested on Sunday evening by police who moved in to clear the remaining XR demonstrators who were blocking Waterloo Bridge.
The sportsman, who was made an MBE in 2013 for services to canoeing, said he was taking part in the protests because the planet was facing an “ecological crisis”.
Speaking before his arrest, he said:
“I don’t think there is anything more meaningful that I could be doing in my life right now. I feel like it is really tough to disrupt people’s lives like this, but this is really important because I believe the disruption that will come down the line if we do not declare a climate emergency and do not tackle this situation of climate change, it will just dwarf any inconvenience here today.”
Waterloo Bridge, which had been closed for a week, was finally cleared in the early hours of yesterday morning when police removed the last group of demonstrators. Protests at Oxford Street and Parliament Square were also cleared over the bank holiday weekend, but a hard core of about 800 activists remained at the legally sanctioned protest at Marble Arch.
The site, which has tents and catering facilities, had spilt on to roads through the area, but the police warned the demonstrators that they would have to clear the public highways before millions returned to work after the Easter break.
A spokesman for the group said there were no plans to escalate activity but warned that the disruption could get “much worse” if politicians did not agree to their negotiation requests.
Scotland Yard said a total of 1,065 people had been arrested since the protests began, and 53 had been charged with a range of offences.
A Met spokesman said: “We remain in frequent contact with the organisers to ensure that the serious disruption to Londoners is brought to a close as soon as possible and that only lawful and peaceful protests continue.”
‘I don’t think there is anything more meaning ful I could be doing in my life right now’