'CLIMATE emergency'. 'Ecological emergency'.
Those were the messages greeting drivers on the M5 through Somerset last week.
Banners were placed on the M5 in bath directions between Taunton and Wellington by environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion on Friday (August 28).
Similar banners have appeared on main roads all over the UK in a coordinated action marking the start of a countdown to the next rebellion, due to start in London, Cardiff and Manchester on September 1.
Extinction Rebellion plans to disrupt key powers and parliament until they back the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill and set up a national citizens assembly.
Meanwhile, groups in the South West sent messages to people heading west for the August Bank Holiday break, intended to 'provoke conversations between families and people on their sometimes-slow progress West'.
"We realise that a certain amount of risk is posed to road users by hanging a banner above a motorway, however, as we enter a period of abrupt climate breakdown, Extinction Rebellion feels a responsibility to raise awareness of the far greater risk to humanity and all life on the planet of continuing inaction over our burning of fossil fuels and rampant consumption of the earth’s limited resources," a spokesperson said.
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