Extinction Rebellion protester Todd Smith has revealed he gave up his “high-flying career” so he could carry out disruptive climate demonstrations, such as glueing himself to roads on bridges.
Speaking on Breakfast with Stephen and Rosie, he said: “I glued myself to the road in Lambeth Bridge on Vauxhall roundabout yesterday.
“Of course, I don’t want to get arrested, I had a high-flying career, but we need to do all we can. We need people out in the streets, we can’t be bystanders anymore, we need to tell the Government to stop their addiction to fossil fuels.”
The comments come as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil stage mass protests across the country to demand the Government stops new oil and gas projects.
In the past two weeks, hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested as they’ve blocked oil terminals, abseiled off London bridges and staged sit-ins on major traffic arteries.
Extinction Rebellion protestor Todd Smith
GB News
Activists from Extinction Rebellion demonstrate in central London
Jonathan Brady
Essex Police have said the fuel protests are putting activists and officers at “unacceptable” risk of harm as the number of arrests are set to top 350 since the sit-ins began on April 1.
Brits have also expressed concerns that environmental activists are exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis by preventing people from getting to work and pushing up fuel prices even higher.
Mr Smith told GB News: “What’s happening at the moment is the Ukrainian crisis is being exploited and there’s no public mandate for the Government to double down on their fossil fuel addiction in this crisis.
“Renewable energy is the cheapest and the quickest form of energy that could be rolled out, such as insulating homes and many other things the Government are failing to do. It just seems they are intent on protecting their rich mates."
He insisted: “Ultimately, this isn’t a cost-of-living crisis, this is a cost-of-living scandal, because it is a political decision and the same people making record profits from the energy crisis, are also the ones that are destroying life on earth and casing untold suffering to millions of people right now let alone what’s coming in the future.”
It is expected a further wave of mass protests will be staged by Extinction Rebellion, XR, this week, particularly across London.
The group held a training course on Monday in Hyde Park to prepare new recruits.
On their website, XR calls on people to mobilise throughout April.
On Saturday, some 8,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate against the fossil fuel investments, according to XR.
In a statement they say: “We will facilitate a mass flood of people to grind the capital to a halt, causing maximum material disruption and making meeting the immediate demand politically unavoidable."