Over 150 protesters marched through central Cambridge today (10/05), holding a “funeral” for the target to keep the increase in global average temperatures below 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels.

Organised by a coalition of groups including Extinction Rebellion, Cambridge Greenpeace, Cambridge Stop the War, and ORCA (Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists), the group rallied at Christ’s Pieces, where they heard from one of the organisers, who emphasised the harm caused by exceeding 1.5°C of warming.

“The bleakness of the outlook makes it all the more important to celebrate everything that 1.5 [degrees] gave us, to mark its death, and to mourn everything that we may lose as we lay it to rest,” he said, before calling on those gathered to hold a minute’s silence in solidarity with those killed in Gaza, which was then observed by the protesters.

The march then proceeded up Christ’s Lane and down Sidney Street, led by a group of “red rebels,” dressed in red robes with faces painted white, followed by “pall bearers” carrying coffins painted black, with the words “Inaction is Death” in white. The procession was completed by a samba band who drummed as they walked, followed by protesters carrying a large sign reading “Don’t silence the science,” along with many other smaller placards.

After marching past Sidney Sussex, St John’s and Trinity colleges, the protesters reached Lion’s Yard, where they stopped as a banner reading “no future on a dead planet” was dropped from a first-floor balcony.

As many passers-by stopped to watch, the protesters stood in silence before the banner, remaining this way for several minutes before breaking their formation. The march then split into two groups, with the rebels continuing towards King’s College, while the rest of the protesters returned to Christ’s Pieces.

Outside of King’s College porter’s lodge, the red rebels once again stood in silence, with fists raised. Porters closed the gates to the college, but there was otherwise no confrontation between the two groups.

At Christ’s Pieces, the assembled protesters heard a performance from Cambridge Climate Choir, followed by speakers from ORCA, Stop the War Coalition and Cambridge Community Kitchen, among others.

One speaker warned against the dangers of “eco-fascism,” as well as “green colonialism,” citing the “Israeli colonisation of Palestinian land” as a key example.

Speaking to Varsity, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: “We’ve been doing today a funeral for 1.5, which is an attempt to mark the passing of the 1.5 °C temperature threshold. This is a rise in global average temperatures from pre-industrial norms. It was a guardrail that was set by the Paris Agreement in 2015; it’s catastrophic that we’ve passed that guardrail ten years later, and the future looks extremely bleak unless we take rapid action.”

Also performing at the rally was Lefty Men Sing, a left-wing male choir of which Tony Booth, a candidate in the upcoming University of Cambridge Chancellorship election, is a member.

“We’ve let 1.5 degrees die, and to some extent we’re all culpable,” Booth told Varsity.

He added: “Cambridge University has a voice, it has a global voice, and it has been tepid, in terms of its willingness and eagerness to tell the truth about the coming environmental catastrophes. The most important issue that the world faces is the breakdown of the environment, so universities should have a big voice about that.”

“What I would call for the University to do is to think in terms of a reverse Manhattan project. The greatest minds came together to find how to kill, how to engage in mass death. I’m calling for a similar reverse Manhattan project, where the greatest minds come together and work out how we can get past the level of denial of reality that we currently face [and] what do we then do about it to limit environmental catastrophes,” he continued.