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Brighton Naked Bike Ride partners Extinction Rebellion to highlight climate crisis

Besi Besemar May 9, 2019

This year’s Brighton Naked Bike Ride welcomes fellow environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion, in their shared cause of alerting the world to the worsening climate crisis.

Image: Chloe Solomons
Image: Chloe Solomons

UNITING under the banner “We are Nature!”, the ride will form a colourful and noisy procession through Brighton & Hove on Sunday, June 9 joining other UK rides at the start of national Bike Week, and several other World Naked Bike Ride events across the globe.

Extinction Rebellion has staged a series of creative, radical actions around the country, including the recent sit-down protests in central London.

Locally, they have held a mass ‘die-in’ in Churchill Square and a fete-themed protest outside Barclays Bank against their investment in fossil fuels. They aim to raise awareness of the urgency of dealing with climate change, and encourage people to take action to ensure that the planet remains habitable.

Brighton Naked Bike Ride is supporting them in calling on the government to tell the truth about how deadly the climate situation is, and to enact legally binding policies to reduce UK carbon emissions to zero by 2025.

Brighton & Hove Council have already backed a climate change emergency motion.

Ride organiser Duncan Blinkhorn said: “Moving to a future that is safe from climate chaos requires us to make better use of the Earth’s limited resources, and stop pumping carbon into the atmosphere. World Naked Bike Ride demonstrates that less can be more: less consumption, less pollution, less clothes even! With just bikes and body power, we are campaigning for better road safety, a more stable climate, cleaner air and… more fun!”

Alice Doyle from Extinction Rebellion Brighton, added: “We’re not just campaigning about the extinction of global animal and plant species, but about the potential extinction of human beings due to man-made pollution and climate change. We are part of nature, and thus equally vulnerable to the environmental crisis we have caused. We’re joining this ride, and supporting the event, as a powerful symbol of both our vulnerability to pollution and our power to change it.”

Up to a thousand riders are anticipated to assemble on Sunday, June 9, from 11am, at Preston Park, Brighton. Participants will decorate their bikes and bodies before the ride heads off at 1.30pm.

Accompanied by a fleet of sound systems, the ride will travel along the seafront via Brighton Palace Pier, back down Western Road, through the Lanes, North Laine and Kemptown, before finishing at Black Rock naturist beach.

Participation is free, family-friendly and “as bare as you dare”. Participants are encouraged to paint their bodies and decorate their bikes with environmental messages under the We are Nature! theme.

For more information about the event and how to take part, click here:

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