Packham: I’ll risk arrest to save our blue planet Springwatch star hits out as protest arrests rise to 1,300
CHRIS Packham says he is prepared to be arrested when he is on the streets with Extinction Rebellion activists.
The TV wildlife guru is angry about the way the climate protesters are being treated. He was stunned when Boris Johnson dismissed them as “crusties” who live in “hemp-smelling bivouacs”.
He hit back at the PM saying: “History will not look favourably on him.”
More than 1,300 people, including Belgium’s Princess Esmeralda, 63, have been arrested in London since Monday as more than a million people took to the streets around the world.
Protesters in the capital included a bishop, an ex-police chief, a Paralympic gold medallist, and a former banker.
Springwatch star Chris warned: “The lack of attention to the climate emergency will come back to bite people.
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“This is about the health of our planet. History will not look favourably on anyone who calls us ‘uncooperative crusties’. We have to put them in a position where they have to listen.”
Chris, 58, indicated he is expecting a long-fought battle – saying he was prepared to get himself arrested, but “much later” when the time was right.
He added: “The emotion I feel most of the time is frustration and anger. The best thing is to channel it into activism.”
Protesters yesterday staged a mock funeral procession along Oxford Street to “grieve” for climate change losses.
Extinction Rebellion set up camp in Trafalgar Square for the week’s protests. Supporters glued themselves to buildings, barricaded the BBC and tried to halt flights at London City Airport.
Paralympic cycling gold medallist James Brown was yesterday banned from going near any UK airport after denying causing a public nuisance by gluing himself to the top of a plane.
Brown, 55, was bailed by Westminster magistrates to appear at crown court next month.
There were more arrests at a blockade blo of Billingsgate fish market. Protester Prot Rob Cooper, 60, an ex Devon and Cornwall Chief Superintendent, said: ““I I joined j the protests for the same reasons rea I joined the police – to protect my community.
“I’m concerned for us all, but especi cially my granddaughter, who’s five.”
Dr Deepa Shah, 36, a GP in H Hackney, East London, said she felt obliged to join as climate change “is a massive risk to the health of future patients”. Methodist minister Jo Rand, 42, from Cumbria – locked up for 24 hours – said: “As a community leader I have to do something. I read a Bible and prayed. I thought, what a gift.” Bishop of Liverpool Paul Bayes, 65, also protested.
He said: “I’m a grandfather of three, I’d like them to grow up. It’s a non-violent group – the church should be with them.”
Ex-banker Andrew Medhurst, 53, of Wandsworth, south-west London, said: “I was in pensions, encouraging saving for the next 30 years. It felt fraudulent.”
Our lack of attention will come back to bite people