Oscar-winning actress and climate activist Emma Thompson has seen the future and behold, it is grim. She warned Thursday the “climate crisis” means Britons must prepare for “crop failures” and the prospect of eating their own pets to survive a future of cataclysmic weather events, great suffering and injustice.
The star, 60, spoke outside the BBC Broadcasting House in central London at an Extinction Rebellion protest to deliver her warning to followers, claiming “general consensus does suggest there is an imminent crisis forecast.”
As she braced herself in front of two maps, held up by activists in swimming cap and goggles, that showed areas at risk of flooding by 2030, she read from a pre-prepared script that foretold of catastrophe if temperatures continue to rise. As the Evening Standard reports, Dame Emma said:
And now earth lovers, to the weather… For those of you expecting a habitable future, we have some pretty gloomy projections for you.
Climate crisis trends show an increased chance of warmer, wetter winters and hotter, dryer summers, along with an increase of frequency and intensity of extremes.
Better wrap up warm, stockpile food and remember there is a surprising amount of food in the average household pet.
Looking ahead we are on course to sail past our 1.5 degree centigrade target putting us on track for long lasting and irreversible change.
The actress, star of such films as Saving Mr Banks and Nanny McPhee, added that besides the “general consensus” of impending climate doom, the future holds “severe flood warnings showing almost everywhere, and a thick fog covering Westminster, it is an uneasy picture.”
The detail followed, as Dame Emma warned everyone to, “Expect crop failures, water contamination, damaged houses and ruined lives, and we will see these persistent weather fronts continue to wreck havoc across the nation, albeit with one or two days of dry and settled weather.”
Finishing with a rhetorical flourish, the Hollywood favourite then claimed, “All the signs are telling us to act now, but as our chief adviser King Canute once said, never let a rising tide get in the way of a good election.”
This is not the first time Thompson has risen to call out the world’s future as she perceives it.
In April she flew 5,400 miles to take part in another climate protest in London, addressing protesters from a large pink boat and reading a poem called ‘Mother Earth Is Not Your Slut’.
A flight from Los Angeles International Airport to London Heathrow generates at least 1.67 tonnes of CO2, according to MailOnline.
“We have seriously failed them (the younger generation) and our planet is in serious trouble, we have much, much less time than we thought,” Dame Emma said on that occasion.
“I have seen the evidence for myself and I really care about my children and grandchildren enough to want to be here today to stand with the next generation.”
Then in September she penned an op-ed for CNN demanding greater urgency from world governments and their leaders to address the “climate emergency we have created.”
She went on to argue that the U.S., China, and big business should work in tandem to address the issue, despite the fact China produces almost double the carbon dioxide emissions of the United States.