Stephen Fry has voiced his support of protest group Extinction Rebellion and urges the public to back the organisation in a new video about the dangers of climate change. In the footage, the actor and comedian calls for more people to follow the movement, adding: "reasonable people, I think, understand that something has to be done [about fossil fuels]."
In the video, which has been shared on YouTube, 64-year-old Stephen Fry opens up on his views on climate change as news reports, visuals and footage from global summits play on top.
While facing the camera, the "national treasure" says: “If you support environmental causes and organisations like Extinction Rebellion, people – especially ones in the public eye – want to cry, ‘Hypocrite, look at him, he’s wearing clothes and he’s pretending to care about the environment."
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He continues: “But the fact is, reasonable people, I think, understand that something has to be done about fossil fuels – most of all about our insatiable appetite for them," before adding that it is “up to governments” to give up carbon use.
“It’s not good just saying everybody give up carbon use because we can’t – ultimately it’s up to governments,” he says. "You need to get them to recognise that this is the most serious crisis that humanity has ever faced and that therefore we should plan. We should plan in a friendly way, in a way that involves all of humanity.”
The seven minute-long video comes as the group plans its next wave of actions with co-founder Roger Hallam, who promises “the same if not greater” disruption and delays to services that was seen from the Just Stop Oil protesters in Extinction Rebellion’s 2019 demonstrations. In April this year, hundreds of activists blocked four of London’s busiest bridges on the first day of the Easter bank holiday.
Speaking to the PA news agency, after making a speech at Glastonbury festival, Mr Hallam, 56, said: “From October 1 there will be mass civil disobedience in London – assuming, of course, the Government doesn’t stop investing in new oil projects."
Stephen Fry acknowledges that while disruption “can ruin the way the world is”, its aim is to obstruct a worse fate for the planet. He explains: "Disruption can be an awful thing. It can ruin the way the world is. But there’s another form of disruption, which is to stop the world going down the wrong path, to disrupt a destructive journey. And that’s what Extinction Rebellion, for example, does.”
The video ends with the 64-year-old wishing younger viewers “good luck”, adding: “I don’t suppose that what I’ve said is likely to change the mind of someone who finds Extinction Rebellion maddening. But maybe it might just encourage some people who aren’t sure whether or not this is the right direction of travel.
“And I’m an old man whose time has passed. But you are likely statistically to be younger than me so you’ve got more at stake, and you’ve probably got more energy and sense too. So bless you and good luck.”
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