I wasn't that surprised when the 57 activists who braved sub-zero temperatures and the threat of arrest to stop CO2 emissions at Stansted got a bit of kicking from some of Fleet Street's finest. It's a sad reality that when ordinary people seek to change society, the standard establishment reaction is to label them dismissively as somehow different to everyone else.

Commentators who would otherwise be trotting out celebritised platitudes or treating us to their ill-informed thinkpieces about the impact of the credit crunch on nativity plays now specialise in ghettoising anyone who stands up for what they believe. Instead of analysing the problems and proposing real solutions to society's most pressing problem – the rapid and runaway growth of greenhouse gases – these tired hacks shoot down anyone fed up with the stale old politics of Westminster and the media establishment.

Young people only appear in the media to receive the blame for breaking Britain, and as the subject of longwinded tracts that label us apathetic and materialistic. Most of us care, but feel so disempowered by these stifling truisms. This is a perfect example: 40 of the 57 arrested had never been in trouble with the police before, but felt so moved by the threat that they risked life and liberty to be heard. What does the media fixate on? Whether we say "haitch" or "aitch".

While the majority of papers dreamt up alliterative but illiterate headings ("the designer demo", "middle-class and militant"), one bright spark at the Sun decided to savage me for the heinous crime of being educated at Godolphin and Latymer school. Of course, the journalist, Lynsey Haywood – who sounds pretty well-heeled to me – forgot to mention that I went there on a full scholarship, and that my dad drives trucks for a living. Since when has the Sun been opposed to people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and braincells, especially when the same issue of the paper contained a four-page spread on climate change?

Let's be clear: Plane Stupid activists are mostly middle-class. Some of us have upper-class backgrounds; others have "real" salt-of-the-earth parentage. Some of us are women, some are men; some have jobs, some don't; some are gay, some are old – a bit like the rest of society, really. We have all flown on planes, and some of us even own cars. Does that somehow undermine the scientific consensus that failing to tackle rising CO2 emissions will have severe and devastating consequences?

We have less than seven years to change our future. The Arctic ice is melting at an alarming rate and once that's gone, the world will start to warm beyond our control. We are on track for a +6C future, which will lead to the extinction of thousands of species and millions of people from all races, classes and walks of life. Things are going to get very, very nasty – and for the whole human race, not just a bunch of poor people in a far-off land which we wouldn't be able to find on a map.

Climate change is a class issue; there's no denying that emissions from wealthy lifestyles are driving global warming, and it's only right that the richest countries bear the brunt of the responsibility for cleaning up their mess. But that doesn't mean that halting and reversing the wanton growth of shorthaul flights is an act of class war. The average household income of a passenger at Stansted airport is £47,000 a year: one hell of lot more than I earn. Having an education shouldn't prevent you trying to stop our society from running into certain disaster. The climate doesn't care how much you earn or who your parents are, just how much carbon you emit. There is no planet B.

We need action now. If government won't act fast enough, then we will be forced to do what's necessary. But if your daily wage comes from attacking good people trying to do things for what they truly believe is the greater good, it's time to take a good hard look at yourself.