02 September 2023 , 17:33
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TV star Chris Packham is expecting more than 100 scientists to join him tomorrow at a rally to persuade MPs to oppose new oil drilling licences.
The Springwatch host, 62, has organised the event with ecologist Emma Smart, who was jailed for four months in 2021 over a previous climate protest. Microbiologists, ecologists, astrophysicists, air pollution scientists will gather at Parliament Square at noon to deliver their vital messages to politicians coming back from summer breaks.
Talking at a Just Stop Oil meeting this week, Packham said they hope to have peaceful conversations with MPs that choose to come out, adding: “I have hopes that significant numbers of MPs will do this.
Packham has backed the controversial campaigners Just Stop Oil (AFP via Getty Images)“I think it’s increasingly something that they need to be seen to be doing. We are putting pressure on our elected representatives to come and listen to the people who we trust when it comes to climate breakdown.”
Packham also explained why he backs Just Stop Oil activists, who have been criticised after repeatedly bringing London’s roads to a halt and disrupting top sporting events. The star – who is waiting for the verdict of a police review for allegedly sniffing a protected wild goshawk chick on The One Show – said: “I share with so many of the other supporters of Just Stop Oil a very deeply entrenched fear for our future.
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“I have a stepdaughter who is 28 and I worry about the world she will inherit.” He added campaigners like him have known of the dangers of climate change since the 80s but failed to do enough.
Packham said: “I feel our generations of activists, campaigners, whatever, had not acted with sufficient furore or gusto in order to implement those changes. We haven’t been shouting loud enough.”