Kendal teacher arrested at Extinction Rebellion protest in London

Bee Pooley, 63-year-old teacher from Kendal, and Adrian Porter, 53-year-old engineer, from Staveley were arrested during the protest and have been released pending investigation. 

Ms Pooley was arrested under Section 14 of the Public Order Act at Oxford Circus on August 25.

She said “We know from history that disruption and civil disobedience have the best chance of achieving rapid social change.

“The climate movement has been warning for decades of the need to reduce emissions to avoid climate breakdown, but politicians and big corporations have ignored them.

“We have no choice now but to force them to act, by taking to the streets until they do.”

LONDON: XR members Lucy, Debbie, Margaret & Gwen pictured at London Bridge

Mr Porter was arrested on suspicion of Wilful Obstruction of the Highway and released on police bail and ordered not to re-enter Westminster and City of London.

Adrian had glued himself to tarmac before the police arrested him.

Mr Porter said “Getting myself into this kind of situation is not something that I’ve done lightly, and the legal consequences are potentially serious.

"If our supposed leaders were capable of making the decisions needed to prevent climate breakdown, people like me would not have to take such desperate actions.”

Both were members of South Lakes Extinction Rebellion who have joined other activists in London for the capitol lockdown protest.

XR is demanding that the government and finance industries stop funding fossil fuel extraction immediately to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown.

This latest protest came after a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which included a scenario that labelled climate change as “irreversibly” affecting every corner of the globe.