On Saturday, I blocked the M4 into Heathrow Airport to protest against the government’s plans to build a third runway. I ran onto the motorway, before being arrested and carried off the road by four police officers. Two other groups locked on to each other with arm tubes, halting traffic into Heathrow at different points in the road, with one group displaying a banner saying ‘Climate Change is a Racist Crisis’. Nearby, despite heavy police presence, 100s, including many locals, took part in a demonstration, chanting 'No ifs, no buts, no third runway' – the promise of the last two prime ministers. In total 15 of us were arrested, in a peaceful act of civil disobedience which was meant to be disruptive.
I did this because I believe climate change is the most urgent crisis facing humanity. This year the summer Arctic sea ice is at its lowest since records began over 125 years ago. If we allow Greenland’s whole ice-cap to melt, sea levels could rise by around six metres, flooding many of the world’s major cities. Extreme weather events – hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, failed monsoons – are already wreaking havoc around the world. Sea level rises and degradation of agricultural land in the global south will deprive millions of their right to economic development, abandoning them to hunger and malnutrition. By 2050, it is estimated that hundreds of millions of people could be forced to flee their homes.
