The 20 people arrested for closing down the Bloor Viaduct Monday as part of a global climate change protest have all been charged with mischief, Toronto Police say. Ten men and 10 women, between the ages of 22 and 67 are members of a group called Extinction Rebellion, also known as XR. Organizers say it’s a decentralized movement based in the U.K. with chapters in around 50 countries. They continued disrupting traffic in cities around the world Tuesday to call attention to the urgent need for action on the climate emergency.In Toronto, the protestors shut down the Bloor Viaduct to traffic from Monday morning during rush hour until around 2 p.m., apologizing for the inconvenience but warning the disturbances would only get worse if the world doesn’t act on climate change.Many held colourful banners with the rebellion’s stylized hourglass symbol, painting on the road and singing Beatles songs. Lines of irate drivers formed at the closed bridge for hours before police started making arrests.After warning a group sitting on the ground in front of giant letters spelling out the words “Act Now,” officers handcuffed the 20 protestors and took them away in a police van as a crowd around them chanted “let them go.”The group has three demands: that government tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, that government act now, and that government create and be led by a citizen’s assembly on climate change.Scientists agree that 2020 is a make-it or break-it year in terms of meeting emissions targets to get to net-zero emissions by 2050.An October 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that in order to keep the Earth from warming no more than 1.5 C above per-industrial levels, as opposed to two degrees, global emissions of greenhouse gases would need to fall to net-zero by 2050. The difference of half a degree is monumental and would have catastrophic impacts.In Montreal Tuesda ...
|
