The Green Party’s London Mayoral candidate, Jenny Jones is set to take part in a new campaign by UK environmental group, Climate Rush, on Wednesday July 13th which could see some central London roads being temporarily disrupted in order to highlight the severity of the capital’s air pollution problem.
Jenny will make a keynote speech ahead of the Roadblockprotest in which a group of cyclists will hit London’s streets and stage a ‘die-in’ at an unspecified location, holding the space for up to 29 minutes, symbolic of the 29,000 premature deaths attributed to poor air quality in the UK – nearly 5% of all annual UK deaths. Doctors and nurses will check the pulses of the protesters and mark the position of their bodies with chalk.
At the end of the 29 minutes the protesters aim to get up and walk away.
Jenny Jones, along with London Assembly colleague, Darren Johnson, has fought an ongoing battle with Boris Johnson to reduce London’s deadly pollution levels.
Jenny says:
Getting clean air is rapidly emerging as the number one environmental and public health issue for Londoners. This is hardly surprising when both the government and Mayor have done so little about the pollution which is killing the equivalent of an estimated 4,300 Londoners every year.
Young, energetic campaigners like Climate Rush will ensure that clean air is a big priority during the Mayoral elections. The real test for Mayoral candidates is whether they can agree to take real action to reduce traffic,lower fares and create a very low emission zone which only allows the cleanest of vehicles to enter central London.
