by Julian Cook, assistant manager of a Covent Garden restaurant chain
YOU won’t find anyone more opposed to climate change than me. I recycle, I haven’t flown since 2019, and my next car will be electric.
But when the terrorists of Extinction Rebellion cause me to be 40 minutes late to work, earning me a verbal reprimand from my boss, then I think we can all agree they have to be stopped.
A global temperature increase of 1.5ºC by 2040 means extreme weather events around the world. Melting icecaps will destroy thousands of British homes. In a century, human life could be unsustainable. But I’ve got to work until bloody 7pm to make up the time now.
How is it helping the climate catastrophe for me to be in the boss’s office having a strip torn off me this morning? Perhaps Greta Thunberg would like to step in and get my bollocking?
To clear any doubt, I am a supporter of Extinction Rebellion. We are in an emergency. The world is on fire. I fully back any action they take in New York, in Paris, in Milan or Manchester. We have no other option.
But if they could assume London’s got the point – we’re all pretty environmental, I get the train in, I’d work from home but it’s not that kind of job – and lay off for a bit, then we reduce the danger of me being called into a meeting and finding that smug cow from HR already there.
Come on. I’ve got a reusable coffee cup. We’re planning to get solar panels installed when we’ve enough savings. That’s never going to happen if you bastards keep causing gridlock.
Enough is enough. For the planet, yes, but also for me personally in this specific situation where I’m in line for a written warning. So do me a favour and f**k off?
