A GROUP of Cumbrians joined 6,000 climate change protesters on Saturday as they closed down five London bridges as part of a series of non-violent direct action events co-ordinated by newly established group Extinction Rebellion.

Protesters blocked the bridges for up to six hours – Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster and Lambeth – in one of the biggest acts of mass civil disobedience in decades.

Kendal’s Mark Arrowsmith, who was part of the Lambeth Bridge shutdown, said: “The aim of this campaign of ‘respectful disruption’ is to draw attention to and change the debate around the climate and extinction crisis.

“Scientists are telling us we only have 12 years to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change. This isn’t just hyperbole – this is very real and we need to do something about it.”

Eighty-five protesters were arrested, including Keswick’s Allan Todd who stood for the Green Party in Copeland in the 2015 General Election.

Mr Todd, who was later released, said: “Until this government begins to carry out its primary duty, which is to protect its citizens, it is our moral duty to mount a continuing campaign of mass civil disobedience.

“We owe this duty, in particular, to the younger generations who are not responsible for this mounting climate crisis.”

Kendal campaigner Gwen Harrison, who was last week arrested for gluing herself to a Government building in Whitehall, said “Environmentalists have spent decades trying to persuade politicians to act on the scientific evidence warning of climate change and ecosystem breakdown, but it hasn’t worked. We can’t just keep doing more of the same. Non-violent civil disobedience seems to me to be the only logical next step”