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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment

We will be thanking Just Stop Oil protesters in years to come

Just Stop Oil demonstrators on a slow march blocking the Old Kent Road in south London on Tuesday.
Just Stop Oil demonstrators on a slow march blocking the Old Kent Road in south London on Tuesday. Photograph: Just Stop Oil/PA

I would like to thank all the Just Stop Oil protesters and any others who campaign for a cleaner, greener world (Just Stop Oil’s message to Suella Braverman: threaten us all you like – we’re not listening, 6 December). I write as an 82-year-old woman who used to join the wonderful young people who campaigned for climate justice and succeeded in getting my city to declare a climate emergency.

I wonder what sort of exceptionalism our government thinks will protect children and grandchildren if it doesn’t act. Freak events such as the heat dome over northern Canada and the floods that devastated parts of Germany last year show we are not immune. And the global south is paying a devastating cost, in the form of drought and flooding. So thank you, all you protesters, for your courage and determination.
Nan Howitt
Leeds

• If anyone doubts the words of Indigo Rumbelow, I suggest they read Hothouse Earth by Bill McGuire. These brave people put their freedom at risk to try to get us to comprehend what is happening to our planet. In the future we will thank them and wish we had listened – for now, we will all just carry on as before with our collective head in the sand. Governments around the world are trying everything to stifle legitimate protest. This should be ringing loud alarm bells, but we would rather turn up the volume on Strictly.
Paul Fisher
Spilsby, Lincolnshire

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