UK Extinction Rebellion joined with other groups on Saturday’s Dirty Water national day of action protesting UK government’s policy of open sewers throughout UK.
Targets to clean up the majority of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters suffering from a cocktail of agricultural and sewage pollution have been pushed back from 2027 to 2063.
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Until Brexit the UK government was signed up to the water framework directive, which required countries to make sure all their waters achieved “good” chemical and ecological status by 2027 at the latest. The UK government later reduced the target to 75% of waterways reaching the single test of good ecological status by 2027 at the latest. The target for the majority of waterways to achieve good status in both chemical and ecological tests has now been pushed back to 2063, according to the documents.
By 2027, only 4% of waters are currently on track to be in good overall condition.
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Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Barry West)Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)XR’s pink boat and Dirty Water protestor at Godalming
PROTESTERS will unveil satirical blue plaques in Taunton claiming to “highlight MP’s Rebecca Pow failure to support the tightening of environmental legislation, to regulate the discharges of the water companies”.
Extinction Rebellion said they “will join a national day of action called Dirty Water to highlight the “shocking state of the waterways”.
The plaques will be unveiled on Saturday (January 28) at sites along the River Tone and the event will finish with a piece of Street Theatre in French Weir.
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Reverend Jonathan Morris, a retired priest from the Diocese of Bath and Wells, and a member of Taunton Extinction Rebellion said: “We’ve watched in horror as our rivers and seas have become open sewers since October 2021, when the government, including the Taunton MP Rebecca Pow, voted down a proposal to stop water companies pumping waste directly into our rivers.
“Lords Amendment 45 to the Environment Bill would have placed a legal duty on water companies in England and Wales “to make improvements to their sewerage systems and demonstrate progressive reductions in the harm caused by discharges of untreated sewage.” report Evolve.
“Despite the horrendous environmental impact of the disgusting practice, shortly before the vote, the Conservative Environment Secretary George Eustice recommended to his fellow MPs that they should reject it.”
“And, owing largely to the government’s 80 seat majority, the amendment was indeed defeated – by a margin of 268 MPs to 204.”
For your convenience, Evolve has collated a list of every single MP who voted to allow water companies to continue the horrendous practice of dumping raw sewage into our waterways below. Make sure you contact them or post on your social media to remind them of their duties. It is 2021 not 1988. Water companies which are highly profitable regional monopolies, some even avoiding UK tax, can not be allowed to get away with this for £.
Steve Double (Conservative – St Austell and Newquay) Scott Mann (Conservative – North Cornwall) George Eustice (Conservative – Camborne and Redruth – sewage affecting Godrevy, Portreath, Porthtowan etc) Cherilyn Mackrory (Conservative – Truro and Falmouth – St Agnes, Porthtowan, Falmouth, Perranporth etc) Gary Streeter (Conservative – South West Devon) Robert Goodwill (Conservative – Scarborough and Whitby) Greg Knight (Conservative – East Yorkshire) Jacob Young (Conservative – Redcar) Matt Hancock (Conservative – West Suffolk) James Cartlidge (Conservative – South Suffolk
Alun Cairns (Conservative – Vale of Glamorgan) Duncan Baker (Conservative – North Norfolk) Scott Benton (Conservative – Blackpool South) Stephen Crabb (Conservative – Preseli Pembrokeshire) David T C Davies (Conservative – Monmouth) James Davies (Conservative – Vale of Clwyd) Jamie Wallis (Conservative – Bridgend) Nigel Adams (Conservative – Selby and Ainsty) Adam Afriyie (Conservative – Windsor) Peter Aldous (Conservative – Waveney) Lucy Allan (Conservative – Telford) Lee Anderson (Conservative – Ashfield) Stuart Andrew (Conservative – Pudsey) Edward Argar (Conservative – Charnwood) Victoria Atkins (Conservative – Louth and Horncastle) Gareth Bacon (Conservative – Orpington) Kemi Badenoch (Conservative – Saffron Walden) Shaun Bailey (Conservative – West Bromwich West) Steve Baker (Conservative – Wycombe) Harriett Baldwin (Conservative – West Worcestershire) Steve Barclay (Conservative – North East Cambridgeshire) Simon Baynes (Conservative – Clwyd South) Aaron Bell (Conservative – Newcastle-under-Lyme) Paul Beresford (Conservative – Mole Valley) Bob Blackman (Conservative – Harrow East) Crispin Blunt (Conservative – Reigate) Peter Bone (Conservative – Wellingborough) Andrew Bowie (Conservative – West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) Graham Brady (Conservative – Altrincham and Sale West) Suella Braverman (Conservative – Fareham) Jack Brereton (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent South) Andrew Bridgen (Conservative – North West Leicestershire) Steve Brine (Conservative – Winchester) Paul Bristow (Conservative – Peterborough) Sara Britcliffe (Conservative – Hyndburn) Anthony Browne (Conservative – South Cambridgeshire) Fiona Bruce (Conservative – Congleton) Felicity Buchan (Conservative – Kensington) Alex Burghart (Conservative – Brentwood and Ongar) Rob Butler (Conservative – Aylesbury) Andy Carter (Conservative – Warrington South) William Cash (Conservative – Stone) Miriam Cates (Conservative – Penistone and Stocksbridge) Maria Caulfield (Conservative – Lewes) Alex Chalk (Conservative – Cheltenham) Jo Churchill (Conservative – Bury St Edmunds) Theo Clarke (Conservative – Stafford) Brendan Clarke-Smith (Conservative – Bassetlaw) Chris Clarkson (Conservative – Heywood and Middleton) James Cleverly (Conservative – Braintree) Thérèse Coffey (Conservative – Suffolk Coastal) Damian Collins (Conservative – Folkestone and Hythe) Alberto Costa (Conservative – South Leicestershire) Robert Courts (Conservative – Witney) Claire Coutinho (Conservative – East Surrey) Virginia Crosbie (Conservative – Ynys Môn) James Daly (Conservative – Bury North) Gareth Davies (Conservative – Grantham and Stamford) Mims Davies (Conservative – Mid Sussex) Dehenna Davison (Conservative – Bishop Auckland) Caroline Dinenage (Conservative – Gosport) Sarah Dines (Conservative – Derbyshire Dales) Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative – Huntingdon) Leo Docherty (Conservative – Aldershot) Michelle Donelan (Conservative – Chippenham) Nadine Dorries (Conservative – Mid Bedfordshire) Julian Lewis (Conservative – New Forest East) Chris Loder (Conservative – West Dorset) Oliver Dowden (Conservative – Hertsmere) Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative – Thurrock) Flick Drummond (Conservative – Meon Valley) David Duguid (Conservative – Banff and Buchan) Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative – Chingford and Woodford Green) Ruth Edwards (Conservative – Rushcliffe) Michael Ellis (Conservative – Northampton North) Natalie Elphicke (Conservative – Dover) Luke Evans (Conservative – Bosworth) David Evennett (Conservative – Bexleyheath and Crayford) Ben Everitt (Conservative – Milton Keynes North) Michael Fabricant (Conservative – Lichfield) Laura Farris (Conservative – Newbury) Simon Fell (Conservative – Barrow and Furness) Katherine Fletcher (Conservative – South Ribble) Mark Fletcher (Conservative – Bolsover) Nick Fletcher (Conservative – Don Valley) Liam Fox (Conservative – North Somerset) Lucy Frazer (Conservative – South East Cambridgeshire) Mike Freer (Conservative – Finchley and Golders Green) Marcus Fysh (Conservative – Yeovil) Mark Garnier (Conservative – Wyre Forest) Nusrat Ghani (Conservative – Wealden) Nick Gibb (Conservative – Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) Peter Gibson (Conservative – Darlington) Jo Gideon (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent Central) John Glen (Conservative – Salisbury) Richard Graham (Conservative – Gloucester) Helen Grant (Conservative – Maidstone and The Weald) Chris Green (Conservative – Bolton West) Andrew Griffith (Conservative – Arundel and South Downs) Kate Griffiths (Conservative – Burton) James Grundy (Conservative – Leigh) Jonathan Gullis (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent North) Robert Halfon (Conservative – Harlow) Luke Hall (Conservative – Thornbury and Yate) Stephen Hammond (Conservative – Wimbledon) Mark Harper (Conservative – Forest of Dean) Rebecca Harris (Conservative – Castle Point) Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative – Hastings and Rye) John Hayes (Conservative – South Holland and The Deepings) James Heappey (Conservative – Wells) Darren Henry (Conservative – Broxtowe) Antony Higginbotham (Conservative – Burnley) Richard Holden (Conservative – North West Durham) Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative – Thirsk and Malton) Philip Hollobone (Conservative – Kettering) Paul Holmes (Conservative – Eastleigh) John Howell (Conservative – Henley) Paul Howell (Conservative – Sedgefield) Nigel Huddleston (Conservative – Mid Worcestershire) Neil Hudson (Conservative – Penrith and The Border) Eddie Hughes (Conservative – Walsall North) Jane Hunt (Conservative – Loughborough) Tom Hunt (Conservative – Ipswich) Alister Jack (Conservative – Dumfries and Galloway) Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative – Morley and Outwood) Robert Jenrick (Conservative – Newark) Caroline Johnson (Conservative – Sleaford and North Hykeham) Gareth Johnson (Conservative – Dartford) David Johnston (Conservative – Wantage) Andrew Jones (Conservative – Harrogate and Knaresborough) David Jones (Conservative – Clwyd West) Marcus Jones (Conservative – Nuneaton) Simon Jupp (Conservative – East Devon) Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative – Shrewsbury and Atcham) Alicia Kearns (Conservative – Rutland and Melton) Gillian Keegan (Conservative – Chichester) Julian Knight (Conservative – Solihull) Danny Kruger (Conservative – Devizes) Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative – Spelthorne) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew) John Lamont (Conservative – Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) Andrea Leadsom (Conservative – South Northamptonshire) Andrew Lewer (Conservative – Northampton South) Mark Logan (Conservative – Bolton North East) Marco Longhi (Conservative – Dudley North) Julia Lopez (Conservative – Hornchurch and Upminster) Jack Lopresti (Conservative – Filton and Bradley Stoke) Rachel Maclean (Conservative – Redditch) Kit Malthouse (Conservative – North West Hampshire) Anthony Mangnall (Conservative – Totnes) Julie Marson (Conservative – Hertford and Stortford) Theresa May (Conservative – Maidenhead) Jerome Mayhew (Conservative – Broadland) Paul Maynard (Conservative – Blackpool North and Cleveleys) Karl McCartney (Conservative – Lincoln) Stephen McPartland (Conservative – Stevenage) Mark Menzies (Conservative – Fylde) Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative – South Basildon and East Thurrock) Robin Millar (Conservative – Aberconwy) Maria Miller (Conservative – Basingstoke) Nigel Mills (Conservative – Amber Valley) Andrew Mitchell (Conservative – Sutton Coldfield) Gagan Mohindra (Conservative – South West Hertfordshire) Damien Moore (Conservative – Southport) Robbie Moore (Conservative – Keighley) Penny Mordaunt (Conservative – Portsmouth North) Anne Marie Morris (Conservative – Newton Abbot) James Morris (Conservative – Halesowen and Rowley Regis) Joy Morrissey (Conservative – Beaconsfield) Jill Mortimer (Conservative – Hartlepool) Wendy Morton (Conservative – Aldridge-Brownhills) Kieran Mullan (Conservative – Crewe and Nantwich) Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative – Scunthorpe) David Mundell (Conservative – Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) Sheryll Murray (Conservative – South East Cornwall) Andrew Murrison (Conservative – South West Wiltshire) Robert Neill (Conservative – Bromley and Chislehurst) Lia Nici (Conservative – Great Grimsby) Neil O’Brien (Conservative – Harborough) Guy Opperman (Conservative – Hexham) Neil Parish (Conservative – Tiverton and Honiton) Owen Paterson (Conservative – North Shropshire) Mark Pawsey (Conservative – Rugby) Mike Penning (Conservative – Hemel Hempstead) John Penrose (Conservative – Weston-super-Mare) Chris Philp (Conservative – Croydon South) Christopher Pincher (Conservative – Tamworth) Dan Poulter (Conservative – Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) Rebecca Pow (Conservative – Taunton Deane) Victoria Prentis (Conservative – Banbury) Mark Pritchard (Conservative – The Wrekin) Tom Pursglove (Conservative – Corby) Will Quince (Conservative – Colchester) Tom Randall (Conservative – Gedling) John Redwood (Conservative – Wokingham) Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative – North East Somerset) Nicola Richards (Conservative – West Bromwich East) Angela Richardson (Conservative – Guildford) Laurence Robertson (Conservative – Tewkesbury) Mary Robinson (Conservative – Cheadle) Douglas Ross (Conservative – Moray) Lee Rowley (Conservative – North East Derbyshire) Dean Russell (Conservative – Watford) David Rutley (Conservative – Macclesfield) Gary Sambrook (Conservative – Birmingham, Northfield) Selaine Saxby (Conservative – North Devon) Paul Scully (Conservative – Sutton and Cheam) Bob Seely (Conservative – Isle of Wight) Andrew Selous (Conservative – South West Bedfordshire) Grant Shapps (Conservative – Welwyn Hatfield) Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative – Elmet and Rothwell) Chris Skidmore (Conservative – Kingswood) Chloe Smith (Conservative – Norwich North) Greg Smith (Conservative – Buckingham) Henry Smith (Conservative – Crawley) Julian Smith (Conservative – Skipton and Ripon) Royston Smith (Conservative – Southampton, Itchen) Ben Spencer (Conservative – Runnymede and Weybridge) Mark Spencer (Conservative – Sherwood) Alexander Stafford (Conservative – Rother Valley) Andrew Stephenson (Conservative – Pendle) Jane Stevenson (Conservative – Wolverhampton North East) Bob Stewart (Conservative – Beckenham) Iain Stewart (Conservative – Milton Keynes South) Mel Stride (Conservative – Central Devon) Graham Stuart (Conservative – Beverley and Holderness) Julian Sturdy (Conservative – York Outer) James Sunderland (Conservative – Bracknell) Desmond Swayne (Conservative – New Forest West) Robert Syms (Conservative – Poole) Maggie Throup (Conservative – Erewash) Edward Timpson (Conservative – Eddisbury) Justin Tomlinson (Conservative – North Swindon) Michael Tomlinson (Conservative – Mid Dorset and North Poole) Craig Tracey (Conservative – North Warwickshire) Laura Trott (Conservative – Sevenoaks) Tom Tugendhat (Conservative – Tonbridge and Malling) Shailesh Vara (Conservative – North West Cambridgeshire) Martin Vickers (Conservative – Cleethorpes) Matt Vickers (Conservative – Stockton South) Christian Wakeford (Conservative – Bury South) Robin Walker (Conservative – Worcester) Charles Walker (Conservative – Broxbourne) David Warburton (Conservative – Somerton and Frome) Matt Warman (Conservative – Boston and Skegness) Giles Watling (Conservative – Clacton) Suzanne Webb (Conservative – Stourbridge) Helen Whately (Conservative – Faversham and Mid Kent) Heather Wheeler (Conservative – South Derbyshire) John Whittingdale (Conservative – Maldon) James Wild (Conservative – North West Norfolk) Craig Williams (Conservative – Montgomeryshire) Gavin Williamson (Conservative – South Staffordshire) Mike Wood (Conservative – Dudley South) William Wragg (Conservative – Hazel Grove) Jeremy Wright (Conservative – Kenilworth and Southam) TELLER: Alan Mak (Conservative – Havant) TELLER: Craig Whittaker (Conservative – Calder Valley)
Image: William Joshua Templeton / Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion protests Michael Gove’s decision to allow coal mining at Whitehaven, Cumbria at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities in London.The mine is UK’s first new deep coal mine for 30 years.
Sarah Hart, a mother of two from Farnborough said: “2022 saw record global greenhouse gas emissions, and record global temperatures. Where is the government’s ambition to act on this Climate and Ecological Emergency? How dare they even think of opening a coal mine now? Gove claims this mine is carbon neutral but he completely ignores the emissions from burning the coal. We demand an end to all new fossil fuel projects.”
Dorothea Hackman, a 70 year old grandmother from Camden said: “Opening a coal mine today means the UK can’t argue that China and India should decrease their own coal emissions. Whitehaven coal isn’t even wanted by British steelworks, it’s going to be exported, there is no argument for domestic production.”
Extinction Rebellion is inviting everyone to Westminster from 21 April 2023 to demand a fair society and a citizen-led end to the fossil fuel era. Find out more about The Big One.
Extinction Rebellion UK dropped a large banner from Westminster Bridge in London that reads ‘APRIL 21: UNITE TO SURVIVE’. A group had marched with flags from Jubilee Gardens along Belvedere Road where they stood in single file off the road, forming a chain across the length of the bridge. When there, an important message was passed along a human chain from one side of the bridge to the other, symbolising connection across divides.
The action officially launches Extinction Rebellion’s ‘100 Days’ campaign – the biggest mobilisation campaign XR has ever undertaken. With it, a new Crowdfunder is set in motion with a £1million target by 21st April, 2023, when 100k are expected to stand together outside the Houses of Parliament.
Today marks the 100 day countdown to ‘The Big One’ on 21st April and is encouraging millions of conversations with friends, family, colleagues and strangers, as well as organisations across and beyond the environmental space, to bring 100k people to Westminster. With Extinction Rebellion’s official ‘ticker’ count revealed to show over 7,000 people ready to be there, this powerful targeted campaign aims to reach new audiences with an accessible, inclusive and easy-to-understand invitation to bring the remaining count into active resistance.
Anna Hyde of Extinction Rebellion UK, said: “The climate, ecological and biodiversity emergencies are not distant threats – they are happening right now, unevenly affecting many – ultimately affecting everyone, and life on Earth is at stake. Covered up by corrupt media, those in power continue to profit from the crises unravelling around us. The fossil fuel era must end, and restoration of the world must begin. This is where solidarity comes in.”
Following Extinction Rebellion’s New Year statement stating that we will “disrupt the abuse of power and imbalance” by targeting the true perpetrators, all signs at this chaotic time in history point toward cooperation between groups and movements taking our love and rage to the seat of power in Westminster. Horrified by the climate disasters unfolding around us, thousands in the UK are ready and waiting to do the work the government is unwilling to do.
Dr. Caroline Vincent of Scientists for XR, said: “Disruptive protest has done so much to change the conversation around the climate and ecological emergency over the last 4 years; more and more people are waking up to realities of the climate crisis, and more and more are saying they want immediate and decisive action.
“The reality is however, that as the general public becomes more concerned, the government in the UK backtracks on its already meagre climate promises, sanctioning a new coal mine in Cumbria at the end of 2022. So, the government isn’t listening and the only way that changes is by all of these newly concerned people recognising their own power and stepping into active resistance. At the same time, the Government is clamping down on the right to protest and criminalising those raising the alarm. In the current circumstances it’s clear that only larger numbers of people taking peaceful action together over prolonged periods will prove impossible to ignore.”
An interesting long article reviews and discusses climate activism 2022 and looks forward to 2023.
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On New Year’s Day, Extinction Rebellion caused a stir by tweeting, “WE QUIT! Our New Year’s Resolution is to halt our tactics of public disruption. Instead, we call on everyone to help us disrupt our corrupt government.”
“Choose Your Future & join us”, they added, providing a date and a location: 21 April, Parliament. The aim — the idea of the velvet revolution — is to get 100,000 people to commit to turning at Parliament on April 21, and also to commit to not going home again at the end of the day.
Please give this date some serious thought and ask yourself, if you already find yourself making excuses not to turn up, why it’s not worth doing. The presence of 100,000 people could genuinely be a tipping point — a gathering too large for the government to suppress via the vile anti-protest legislation passed by the former home secretary Priti Patel, and which the current home secretary, Suella Braverman, wants to expand, which criminalises protest, and equates disruption to save the planet with terrorism.
