Extinction Rebellion celebrities admit they are 'hypocrites' for backing protests despite 'high carbon lives'
Extinction Rebellion-backing celebrities have written an open letter admitting that they are “hypocrites” for supporting the environmental protests despite living “high carbon lives”.
Household names including actor Benedict Cumberbatch, musician Sir Bob Geldof, and Glastonbury festival organiser Emily Eavis acknowledged that their lifestyles and professional industries contribute to the “climate emergency” Extinction Rebellion is campaigning to end.
But the celebrities, who have thrown their weight behind the group’s two week long disruption in London that has grounded flights and blocked roads, said they will not be silenced by being called “climate hypocrites”.
It comes after several famous faces received backlash for vocally supporting Extinction Rebellion despite landing lucrative car sponsorship deals and holidaying on private jets.
The letter reads: “Dear journalists who have called us hypocrites. You’re right. We live high carbon lives and the industries that we are part of have huge carbon footprints.
“Like you – and everyone else – we are stuck in this fossil-fuel economy and without systemic change, our lifestyles will keep on causing climate and ecological harm.
“There is, however, a more urgent story that our profiles and platforms can draw attention to. Life on earth is dying. We are living in the midst of the 6th mass extinction.
“Global warming causes major damage to the global economy and the natural world and engenders risks of catastrophic and irreversible outcomes.”
Other signatories include actors Peter Capaldi, Jude Law, Ian McEwan and Sienna Miller.
This summer, the Oscar winning British actress Dame Emma Thompson was criticised after flying 5,400 miles from Los Angeles to London before taking part in an Extinction Rebellion protest, a journey which is estimated to run up a three tonne carbon footprint.
“It’s very difficult to do my job without occasionally flying, although I do fly a lot less than I did,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Earlier this year, Sherlock star Mr Cumberbatch was announced as the new ambassador for the Indian car brand MG. Last week, he joined Extinction Rebellion protesters sitting in the road to block traffic from entering Trafalgar Square.
The letter, which is signed by 100 celebrities, continues: “Climate change is happening faster and more furiously than was predicted; millions of people are suffering, leaving their homes and arriving on our borders as refugees.
“Alongside these people who are already paying the price for our fossil fuelled economy, there are millions of children – called to action by Greta Thunberg – who are begging us, the people with power and influence, to stand up and fight for their already devastated future.
“We cannot ignore their call. Even if by answering them we put ourselves in your firing line.”
Their letter was released on the tenth day of Extinction Rebellion protests in central London, which have targeted some of the busiest sites in the capital and required a heavy police operation.
On Monday night, the Metropolitan Police began clearing activists from Trafalgar Square using section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, which determines that any assembly of two or more people linked to the group in London is unlawful.
Lawyer’s acting on behalf of Extinction Rebellion have mounted a legal challenge, which will be heard in the High Court, against the ban.
Former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Hogan-Howe, who headed the UK's largest force from 2011 to 2017, defended the police’s decision, telling the House of Lords: "These are difficult judgments. Of course on the last occasion Extinction Rebellion carried out their protests, the police were criticised for failing to take action.
"Here we see them criticised perhaps for taking too much.
"But surely when we have the threat of airports being closed and the Tube system being shut down, then this is a serious matter for London, as it is for the country generally.
"Perhaps the use of the power on this occasion is a reasonable response."
