Protesters call out UK government for climate change inaction

To call out the government for their inaction, climate change activists tried to shut down the operation of an airport in London on Oct. 10.

The protest was organized by Extinction Rebellion, which was founded in 2018 and is aiming to make the government treat climate change a form of "emergency" that needed immediate action.

One activist, James Brown, a Paralympic medalist, was seen sitting on top of a plane. He even started live steam on his Facebook account, where he claims he has a fear of heights and the action was scary yet he has shown no remorse because it is "all about the climate and ecological crisis."

This action delayed a flight to Amsterdam that is set to take off at 13:00 BST. According to reports, Brown booked a seat on that plane.

Brown was taken down in less than an hour and was arrested. Dame Cressida Dick, the commissioner of Metropolitan Police, called his action as "reckless, stupid, and dangerous."

Another flight, bound to Dublin, was interrupted as an unnamed man in brown trench coat suddenly stood on the aisle and delivered a lecture about climate change. As seen on a video posted online, he started his protest by apologizing for the disturbance before claiming that there are only two generations of human civilization left if the inaction kept ongoing.

Cabin crew asked him to stop this and go back to his seat, which the man refused. The plane got no choice but to return to its starting point to escort the man out, as his behavior was deemed as "disruptive."

Like Brown, the man is also a legitimate passenger.

Various activities were also observed. Some even glued themselves on the pavement, including former Metropolitan Police Detective John Curran. 

The protest has been going on since Monday, Oct. 7. The organizers said that they are protesting against the plan of expanding the airport, which aims to cater at least 6.5 million passengers. They said it is a contradiction to the government's pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero after three decades.

Rupert Read, for the Extinction Rebellion, justified the extreme plan of doing a "Hongkong-style occupation" by claiming he had spent the last two decades knocking from door to door to educate people and none of it worked.

Since the protest started, around 1,000 people were already arrested. Twenty-nine were charged.

As of Thursday afternoon, protesters had started to get out of the airport's premises.