World News for Students of English

01-05-2019 07:00

There have been more than 1,000 arrests during one and a half-week-long protests organised by a group called Extinction Revolution.

The protesters demanded actions to address climate change, blocked the entrance of the London Stock Exchange, and held banners in a London financial district last Thursday. One of the banners read ‘business as usual = death’, meaning that doing nothing can be catastrophic for the planet.

The protests and spectacles were disruptive to the city, but the organisation said that it made its point. One activist said that it had become very popular and politicians noticed.

The Extinction Revolution wants the government to create a national program which would reduce carbon emission, which contribute to global warming, to zero by 2025. Similar climate protests took place in New York, Berlin, Paris and at the Hague.

Difficult words: demand (strongly ask for something), spectacle (a show), disruptive (causing disruption – blocking traffic, changing how normally things go).

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