“I will not be a bystander’: Two years on from Parliament’s declaration of climate emergency local woman takes action in Swansea with 100s of others around the UK

On High St Swansea, at 11am today, a local person stopped traffic for over an hour by peacefully sitting in the road wearing a sign that read ‘I’m terrified that there is nothing to live for because of the climate crisis’.

As she bravely sat in the way of oncoming traffic, Tez B was protesting about Government inaction on the climate emergency, two years on from Parliament’s declaration of an environment and climate emergency.

But the sitter was not alone. Around the country, over 200 people just like them, terrified about them the trajectory we are on in this climate and ecological emergency, also took action in their home towns in the same way. As lockdown rules began to lift in the UK, people blocked roads from Aberdeen to Birmingham to Yarmouth and beyond, to say they will no longer stand by while the UK Government lies to the public about its tepid plans to tackle the climate crisis.[1]

The action was part of an approach developed during the Covid-19 pandemic by members of Extinction Rebellion, in which people can engage in civil disobedience alone, yet united.

Tez B, from Swansea said:

“I was naïve enough to think that the reason we’re not solving Climate Change is that we don’t have the solutions, but we do! We’re just not listening to the experts. It seems to me that the only meaningful action I can take is to try and get people to listen to the experts that already know the answers. That’s why I’m doing this protest today.”

The people taking action today hope to make clear that they can no longer trust the UK Government with their future.

This protest was a part of Extinction Rebellion’s ‘waves’ of Rebellion for 2021; rebellions held each month, increasing in pressure each time as we build up to COP26 in Glasgow in November. [2]