MEMBERS of Woking Extinction Rebellion took part in a peaceful, socially distanced demonstration in Woking Park last Saturday.

The intention was to remind the Government to take the climate and ecological emergency seriously.

The protest also asked MPs to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill (CEE Bill), which Extinction Rebellion says sets out a clear path for the UK Government to avoid climate catastrophe.

Our Government is failing on its legally binding commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, according to its own advisory Committee on Climate Change.

As part of the demonstration, a banner was unfurled on the park’s bandstand asking MPs to support the CEE Bill, and surrounded with children’s shoes.

Donated by concerned parents from across Woking, the shoes were chosen to represent the children and young people, in the UK and around the world, that the Government is leaving vulnerable to an uncertain present and a dangerous future.

“Again and again we hear from MPs that we cannot make changes quickly, that the people will not support them, and this is clearly false,” said Dr Elisabeth Harley, biologist and Woking parent who attended the demonstration with her children.

“The support and the appetite for change are there. I want to see Jonathan Lord speak up in Parliament for my children and for children across the world. Leave fossil fuels in the past where they belong.”

People in the UK and around the world are awake to the danger that the planet faces from climate change, and embrace the societal and lifestyle changes that we need to make to avoid catastrophe, Dr Harley added.

After the demonstration the shoes were donated to Jigsaw, a local non-profit organisation that supports children living in poverty.

Extinction Rebellion says an international survey by the United Nations Development Programme found that almost two-thirds of people worldwide think that climate change is a global emergency, and support significant changes to the way we live.

In 2020, members of the first UK Climate Assembly, selected from the general public, asked for clear Government leadership in making rapid changes to address climate change.

Concerned residents can sign a petition asking Woking MP Jonathan Lord to support and sign the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill in Parliament.