ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners from Malvern took part in a nationwide campaign this week to raise awareness of climate change.

Members of the Malvern Extinction Rebellion group travelled to Bristol to demonstrate and attempt to force the government into action.

As part of their protest, the demonstrators took over a bridge in the centre of Bristol and an area outside Cabot Circus, stopping the traffic with a large pink boat saying “ACT NOW.”

At the Cabot Circus demonstration, a ‘Citizen’s Assembly’ was held for discussion around causes of and solutions to climate change.

The Bristol protest formed part of a nationwide campaign by the group across the cities of London, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow and Leeds.

Each group of protestors in the cities brought a different coloured boat with them to represent the different focuses of each demonstration.

The focus of the Bristol action is rising sea levels in light of the city’s maritime history and its risk of flooding.

The Extinction Rebellion members blocked traffic in the city, only moving to allow emergency vehicles such as fire engines, ambulances and police cars to get through.

Suzanne Savage, from the Malvern group, said: “We have been going down to Bristol in shifts to take up our posts because, contrary to popular belief, we do all have jobs and have had to take time off work to come down here.

“The response has been amazing really, around 40 per cent of the cars that drove past gave us the thumbs up and signalled their support with only a few giving us abuse.

“The fact is that we have to be down here protesting because the government is not taking the lead on climate change.

“An important part of our message is that the environmental predictions, which are terrifying, aren’t just conspiracy theories, they are predictions from recognised scientists.

“We use the IPCC report from the United Nations for our figures and they are not even the most apocalyptic forecasts, but they should keep people up at night.”

Earlier this year, Extinction Rebellion's Malvern group took to the streets of the town for a funeral procession dedicated to endangered species.

The protestors marched through the streets carrying a coffin and staged a die-in at one of the parks in Malvern, lying on the ground to express their message.

Malvern Extinction Rebellion will be hosting a free film night on Friday, July 18 at 7pm at the Malvern Quaker House in Orchard Road, WR14 3DA.

Malvern activists who have been joining in the nationwide Summer Uprising will discuss their efforts, and there will also be short Extinction Rebellion films which explore the XR philosophy.

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