Below is a letter from this week's SNJ (Dec 12) backing the eco-activists who have been taking direct action in Stroud and elsewhere. They blocked the Merrywalks road in October and most recently held 'die-in's at Stroud's supermarkets.

I WRITE in support of the Extinction Rebellion movement which started here in Stroud but is spreading rapidly across the country.

Last month it organised its first demonstration outside parliament to bring attention to the urgent need to address the looming catastrophe of climate change and other forms of environmental damage.

It is so tempting to react to these challenges by turning away and saying, “It’s not affecting me” - but the scientists at IPCC recently made it very clear that, if we continue as usual, the result will be a calamity on a scale the world has never seen before.

And some of us may think we’ll be gone before the axe falls, but the scientists are telling us we have a little over a decade to change direction.

So if we care about the wellbeing of our children – and their children – we need to put pressure on our government to take action now.

If that doesn’t happen, the issues which currently occupy politicians and the media, like Brexit and economic growth, will soon look like irrelevant sideshows in a world that is increasingly unable to support human life.

Whether we like it or not, we are living at a unique time in human history.

Be ready people – a change is certainly coming.

If we face up to it we can help make it a good one instead of a disaster.

Nigel Westaway

Stroud