Hundreds of people who were arrested for their part in the peaceful Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in April are being taken to court charged with public order offences under section 14.

Here we talk to some of them and hear why the scale of the climate crisis means they were prepared to risk arrest.

Louis Brijmohun, 25, PHD student from Sheffield

Brijmohun, having finished an MA in politics, philosophy and economics, had been planning to do a PhD in global poverty and inequality last autumn.

But as he began to research his subject in more detail, he came across a wealth of papers about the impacts of the climate crisis.

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“I thought I knew what climate change was – it was one of the things alongside, say, homelessness and poverty that we needed tackle urgently. But as I began to read these academic papers, which calmly and without emotion described what 3C warming would look like, what would happen to people and entire ecosystems, I could not believe it. It left me with a calm sort of panic and everything changed.”

Brijmohun found himself going down a “rabbit hole of citations”, being directed from one academic paper after another.

“It realigned all my priorities and focus in life … I realised that if we don’t solve this crisis nothing else – global poverty and inequality – can be meaningfully addressed.”

Quick guide What is a section 14 notice? Show Hide A section 14 notice allows the police to impose conditions on a static protest – in other words, one where a group of people gather in one place and stay put – rather than marching somewhere. During the Extinction Rebellion protests in April 2019, police imposed a section 14 order stipulating that activists should clear the protest sites at Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Oxford Circus and move to nearby Marble Arch if they wished to continue protesting. Those who refused were liable to arrest for breaching the order

At the same time, he saw an XR post on Facebook and went to a meeting in Sheffield. “I met people from all sorts of backgrounds who were sacrificing so much I decided to it was the right thing for me, too … This is our civil rights struggle – but even more urgent because time is running out.

“I have always thought: “Who were these people who lived through the civil rights movement but thought: ‘That’s not for me, I am too busy or I have got other stuff to do’? I don’t want to be that person.”

Kathryn Shipp, 55, teacher from London

Shipp helped found the XR group in Lewisham, south London – one of the most active in the country, with more than 300 members. She has long been an environmental campaigner with Greenpeace but had become increasingly frustrated about how governments seemed to be ignoring the escalating crisis. When she heard about XR, she saw it was acting with a real sense of urgency and joined the protests.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kathryn Shipp: ‘It has been just amazing what we have achieved.’ Photograph: Robert Possnett

“It has been just amazing what we have achieved in such a short space of time, considering no one knew about this group a few months ago. I have been campaigning about the environment for years but no matter what people did – from climbing the Shard to boarding oil rigs – nothing really changed.

“Then, in a few days, this group seemed to shift the whole debate … It is terrifying what we are facing and every week the news gets worse but with this at least it feels like something is changing.”

Robert Possnett, 58, from Bury St Edmunds

Former paratrooper Possnett became interested in environmental issues in the late 1980s “signing petitions and writing stuff”, but remained on the periphery of the green movement. As the environmental crisis worsened and meaningful government action failed to materialise, he became increasingly disillusioned.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robert Possnett: ‘I thought: “This is our last chance. What am I doing with my life?”’ Photograph: Robert Possnett

“I had sort of given up really – then I heard about Extinction Rebellion and that just struck a bell with me. I thought: ‘This is our last chance. What am I doing with my life? This is where I am going to put my energy. What greater thing to do?’ It is in the same way as when I was 16 or 17 and decided I was prepared to defend the country with my life by joining the Paras – sometimes you have to be stand up and be counted and this is one of those times.”

Possnett said that his interest in environmental issues meant he was known for a long time among his friends as the slightly “crazy one”.

“A lot of the people I know are small business owners and and that type of thing and for a long time they thought I was a bit crazy, a bit of tree hugger. But now it is completely different; they all view me as the sensible one, they wish they had the guts to stand up and do something and they will support me in whatever way they can.”

He said that change in attitude had happened in the past 10 months because of XR, the IPCC report warning there are only 12 years left to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, and Greta Thunberg and the school strike movement.

“It has all come together and the change has been rapid and remarkable … now we need to change not just attitudes but the actions of governments. We have come a long way but we still have so far to go. That is why we need to step it up.”

Zoe Lafferty, 33, theatre director from London

Lafferty has worked in Palestine and spent time in Syria during the revolution as well as various cities across Europe. She says she has witnessed first hand the impact of the climate emergency on the refugee crisis and she feels she has a lot to learn from people around the globe who have been fighting exploitation and destruction of the natural world for decades.

“You can still just about close your eyes to this crisis if you live in the UK but in other parts of the world that is now impossible. I have worked at a theatre in Jenin refugee camp, Palestine, for 10 years and each summer it is getting hotter and hotter. Each winter the flooding is worse. This year, I returned to the UK in February to temperatures of 20C – I couldn’t ignore it any more.

“Now the challenge for us is to join the dots, to make the connection between the systems of power that create war, exploitation and oppression and are only serving a very few people and the accelerating environmental crisis.”

Doro Marden, 71, from London

Marden had been concerned about the environment for years, writing letters to her MP, signing petitions, getting involved in local groups and even being one of the original crowdfunders for The Age of Stupid, a film set in an environmentally devastated future where the protagonist asks why earlier generations had not acted when they had the chance.

But as the signs of climate breakdown accelerated, she felt increasingly frustrated and fearful that no commensurate action was being taken by those in power. “I have five grandchildren and it is no exaggeration to say that thinking about what their future will be like keeps me awake at night” she says.

When she heard about XR last year, she arranged for a representative to give a talk, Heading for Extinction and What to Do About It, in the library in Primrose Hill. Thirty people in the affluent area of north London turned up and since then Marden has not looked back, setting up a local affinity group and organising civil disobedience training in the community centre.

She was arrested in April for breach of a section 14 order and is due in court in December.

“The future is very scary as it stands but I still believe that if we can get this right now, there remains time to avoid the worst of the impacts of the crisis and create a better world for future generations, in terms of the quality of our lives, our mental health, pollution levels, community, happiness,” she says. “I have never been in any trouble before – I am not really a natural rebel – but, when I think of my grandchildren’s future, I know this is the right thing to do.”