A law student was among activists protesting outside Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Altrincham this morning - despite his protesting putting his future career prospects "down the drain".
At least eight protestors from Extinction Rebellion blocked Sunbank Lane in Altrincham from around 4am this morning as part of a national protest against Amazon on Black Friday, one of their busiest days of the year.
One of those out demonstrating today was 19-year-old Kai Bartlett, a law student studying in the city centre, who was out demonstrating for the first time, having previously joined several marches with the group.
READ MORE:
However, the University of Manchester student decided he needed to do something more extreme to see change.
He said: “This is my first time doing this kind of thing, this group is a lot of young students so it's a lot of their first times too.
“I used to look at a lot of media that would represent the climate crisis in a relatively minor way and downplay it and when I looked at the credible sources it became more and more difficult to justify carrying on as normal.
“In the back of my mind whilst studying it felt horrible that I have the opportunity to make a difference and I’m not seizing it.
“There are a lot of people who are not able to do what we do - as a group of people we can do so much and we’re doing it for the people that are not as privileged.
“I’m studying law and at this point I’ve accepted my career prospects have gone down the drain with what I’m doing.
“If we don’t see change, we might not even have a society before too long.”
Kai joined Extinction Rebellion around two years ago, when he was just starting at university, but has not been able to take part in many protests before now as lockdown halted the majority of action.
Kai added: “As you learn more about the reality of what’s going on, marching becomes uncomfortable, it’s not going to create the mass change that we need.
“It’s more performative than effective and it almost feels horrible to do if you’re struggling with climate anxiety - for some people it feels good to do but we need to step it up."
Kai, who was chosen as one of the spokespeople to represent the group, explained that Amazon had been chosen as part of this national action due to their high emissions, which have increased in recent years.
In 2020, the absolute carbon emissions of the firm increased by 19 per cent, up to 60.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
However, the amount of CO2 produced per dollar of gross merchandise sales, the metric used by the firm to assess their Climate Pledge goal, decreased due to the boost in sales.
The group had been out since about 4am, sitting through some harsh weather conditions with bitterly cold winds and freezing rain.
Kai added: “It was really difficult at the start but it started to get a little bit better.
“There was some snow forecast but everyone was prepared for extremely uncomfortable conditions.
“This action had been planned for quite a while and we’re not in a position where we have the time to skip actions because the weather’s going to be bad.
“We’re long past being able to pick and choose when we can protest, we need to do more.”
The protest came to an end when a man working with a nearby charity came to speak with protesters, who had chained themselves into metal pipes.
He told them that several charities were located near the warehouse, including a cancer charity and a toy appeal, and their action had blocked people attempting to help these good causes.
After hearing this, the protesters made the decision to end their action before police were able to cut them free, so that the charitable work could continue.
He declined to speak with the Manchester Evening News in further detail, saying he “didn’t want to add to [the protesters’] publicity”.
Four people, two men and two women, were arrested from the scene today.
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: “Police were aware of a protest in Manchester which was preventing access to a warehouse.
“Officers attended to maintain safety whilst facilitating the right to peaceful protest.
“Four people - two men and two women - were arrested on suspicion of public nuisance. They remain in custody for questioning.
“The protest has since concluded and Sun Bank Lane has re-opened.”
