Protesters in climate movement risk getting arrested to call for attention in society

Reported by Bella Huang Edited by Tomiris Urstembayeva

Four protesters were lying on a road in Central London between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. Several policemen approached to persuade them to leave the street. After a while, the police gave up waiting and carried away a protester. Thousands of other protesters around clapped and chanted cheerfully. “What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!” they shouted.

This was a common scene during the 12-day long mass climate protest, which attracted more than 30,000 people to London to participate, according to the organiser’s website.  The city had seen 1,832 arrests in the last two weeks of September, with 154 of them charged with multiple offences, according to figures from the Metropolitan Police.

The protest, called “Extinction Rebellion”, is an international movement that uses non-violent ways of civil disobedience, to declare an ecological emergency and ask for immediate action to protect the environment. People from 60 cities globally gathered in Central London for the protest since early October. The movement in London has three core demands: tell the truth of the scale of ecological crisis, push the UK to achieve net-zero emissions by 2025, and urge the government to create a citizens’ assembly to tackle climate problems.

Different from what is now happening in Hong Kong, London police try their best to have conversations with the protesters before carrying them away.

As the protest continues, more and more climate activists are seeing “getting themselves arrested” as an important strategy, and they are willing to be one of “the arrestables.” This disruptive tactic include actions such as lying under vehicles to block roads, gluing themselves to government buildings and clambering atop an airplane at the airport.

The organiser has stated on its website that arrests is an important strategy for Extinction Rebellion, while it tries to “turn the criminal justice process (from arrest to prosecution) to an opportunity to advance our strategic objectives - in particular by raising public and political awareness of the climate strategy.”

The organiser provides legal information and assistance for protesters to prepare themselves before and after arrests.

“Obviously this (being arrested) is not a nice thing to go through, but in the grand theme of things, it is minor,” said Georgia, 32, who was sitting outside a car at Trafalgar Square with her young son, in an attempt to block the road. 

“People (willing to be arrestable) are joining all the time. (The movement is) getting bigger and bigger. It is building momentum,” she added.

Caption: Georgia ( on the right), one of the protesters in London, brings her son to participate in the protest. Georgia’s interest in environmental issues has developed since her university years.

The Extinction Movement calls for immediate action to save the planet from what activists say will be the “sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history.” It states that ongoing destabilising events such as the loss of biodiversity loss, risings sea levels and extreme weather will result in millions of people being displaced and consequently, increased risks of wars and conflicts.

According to a recent survey published by Climate Central, a news organisation that reports on climate science, the number of people who will become vulnerable because of rising sea level is three times higher than previously thought. Many Asian coastal cities such as Shanghai and Bangkok, will be affected.

Kate Jeffery, a neuroscientist from University College London who joined the Extinction Rebellion protest, thinks that the arrest of protesters is an effective way in raising social awareness.

“For quite a long time, I thought, or hoped technology would be able to solve the (climate) problem, but after 40 years of waiting, I realize that that’s not going to happen and the Extinction Rebellion appeared to be able to make a change,” she said.

Kate Jeffery says her role in the climate movement is to answer people’s questions and clarify myths on climate issues from a scientist’s perspective.

The number of people arrested during the Extinction Rebellion has grown from almost 300 on the first day to more than 1400 during the first week. Many celebrities also became “arrestables”, including Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium, who shared her police release paper, indicating that she is “still under investigation”.

Rachel Smith, 43, a counsellor from Brighton who joined Extinction Rebellion in February, thinks getting arrested is an important strategy to push forward the movement.

“As (the) police (are) being overwhelmed, people hired by the police force would have to talk to politicians, and force politicians to make a political solution to these rebellions,” she said.

She also agrees that being arrested has been a successful strategy in raising social awareness. “People are talking more about that (climate issues) since the April protest. The media, hopefully, will start reporting [on the climate movement] and a healthy conversation will happen,” Mrs. Smith said.

Besides banners, there are tents, a meditation centre, and several food stalls in St. James Park to provide protesters in London with aid during the climate protest.

The April protest earlier this year was the first demonstration organized by Extinction Rebellion, during which protesters glued themselves across the entrances of the London Stock Exchange building. That lasted 11 days and resulted in 1,130 people being arrested.

Professor Graham Smith from the University of Westminster, London, whose main research focuses on climate and environmental politics, said that the arrests have pressured the government to act and that this strategy is not a new thing.

“We need to recognise that the combination of large numbers on the streets and visible arrests is part of a long and distinguished tradition of non-violent direct action,” said Professor Graham.

However, there are still concerns that Extinction Rebellion has failed to provide sufficient support and information to those arrested. Green and Black Cross, an independent grassroot group that provides legal support to protesters, released a statement earlier this year to say they would stop cooperating with Extinction Rebellion. 

They expressed “serious concerns about the safety of both legal observers and of those taking part in actions associated with Extinction Rebellion.”

Protesters wear costumes bearing slogans such as “tell the truth”. One of the three demands of the climate protest is to “tell the truth of the scale of ecological crisis”.

The street protests though have angered from some Londoners. They complained that the occupation of main streets has brought inconvenience to their daily lives. On October 18, a video showed that commuters dragging a protester down from the roof of a tube train after several Extinction Rebellion activists climbed on to trains at Stratford, Canning Town and Shadwell during the morning rush hours. 

“I understand that the protesters want more attention, but affecting people’s daily lives isn’t a smart decision to get to that point,” said Jimmy Thomas, a commuter who was taking the tube to work that morning at Stratford station.

The Metropolitan Police of London outlawed Extinction Rebellion on October 14, the eighth day of the movement, stating that all protesters of the movement can be arrested after 9 pm that day. According to the organisers, more than 3,000 protesters have been arrested globally throughout the movement in October. 

Despite causing inconvenience to the neighbourhoods, protesters are stringent about their actions. They are determined to continue the fight for the environment.

Bob Tyrell, who has been protesting outside St James Park since the first day of this movement, said, “the future is only important if we have one… My freedom versus the freedom of life, there’s no competition”.

Protesters play drums and trumpets, whistle and chant at St James’s Park during the protest.