Lone activist turns up for Extinction Rebellion protest

A climate strike in Canterbury today attracted only one activist.

The Canterbury branch of Extinction Rebellion organised the protest in the high street against the climate crisis, but it suffered from an incredibly poor turnout. 

This did not deter activist Henry Sparks who found himself protesting alone.

He said: “All these people walking by need to know that there’s a problem. It doesn’t matter how many the government lock up, or how they change the law to stop people peacefully protesting, there is a problem.  

“I think the mood’s changing, but the problem is that we don’t yet have people who are sufficiently interested to take action. They know it’s a problem but they’re not quite sure what to do about it. I think they also think as well that it’s over there, it’s not affecting us locally.”  

Mr Sparks said there were about 20 other people who are active in the Canterbury branch Extinction Rebellion.

“A lot of them have been arrested and busted for one thing or another,” he said.   

“I think the council were thinking of when they replace refuse collecting vehicles, making them electric. The problem is that local councils, they have no money at the moment. The central government has starved local councils of money for various political reasons.

“They’re finding it very difficult to just do the basics. A lot of people would say that doing something about the climate is not one of the basics.  

“I think mostly people are quite kind of tired in the sense that the government has not changed the way they do things, things are getting worse.”  

Extinction Rebellion have previously protested outside of Canterbury Crown Court and inside supermarkets.