Baptist Minister Crosses Legal Boundaries in Call Against Climate Change

Christian organisations like Tearfund and Christian Aid have strongly protested against global climate change in the past year, urging the public to live a 'greener' life and cut down on activities that would harm the environment.

But according to reports recently, some Christians have taken the 'green campaign' quite far- further than the law had allowed them to.

Last weekend, 24 environmental protesters, led by a British Baptist minister, were arrested for violating the security perimeter at the Nottingham East Midlands airport.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the protesters cut through fences around the airport's perimeter and sat on the runway, causing flight delays. Police arrested them for breaking the nation's Aviation Security Act.

|QUOTE|According to a press release from the group, called Plane Stupid, the protesters sat on the tarmac to protest short-haul flights within the United Kingdom. Such flights are a major contributor to global climate change, they said. According to the United Nations, climate change kills 160,000 people a year.

He noted that British Prime Minister Tony Blair "has known for years that climate change presents the biggest danger to life on earth, so why doesn't he do the Christian thing and ban unnecessary and unsustainable short-haul flights?"

Thousands of people are expected to gather in London this November for the 'I Count' climate event to pressure the UK government into taking urgent action on climate change.

The 'I Count' event will be hosted by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition in London's Trafalgar Square from 1 to 3pm on Saturday 4 November and will also make the call for a radical reduction of worldwide carbon emissions over the next decade.

Gareth Wilde, BMS mission education coordinator said that, as Christians it is our responsibility to join the campaign to stop climate chaos.

"BMS workers in some of the poorest countries in the world are seeing firsthand the catastrophic effects of climate change.

"Crop failures, flooding and desertification are affecting poor communities that have few resources to deal with the devastating consequences of climate chaos."