London cops nab over 300

LONDON, Oct 08 (Agencies): London police have made more than 300 arrests as climate-change protesters, labelled "uncooperative crusties" by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, continued two weeks of civil disobedience to push for more to be done to protect the environment.

On Monday, the Extinction Rebellion group took action in several countries including Britain, Germany, Austria, Australia, France and New Zealand as they lobby politicians to go further in cutting carbon emissions.

The protests are the latest stage in a global campaign for tougher and swifter steps against climate change coordinated by the group, which rose to prominence in April when it snarled traffic in central London for 11 days.

London police said 319 arrests had been made by the end of Monday and Johnson criticised the activists.

Speaking at an event on Monday evening he said: "I am afraid that the security people didn't want me to come along tonight because they said the road was full of uncooperative crusties," using a slang British term for eco-protesters.

"They said there was some risk that I would be egged," he added.On Tuesday, some protesters hit back at him.

"It's not helpful," Diana Jones, from the southern English county of Sussex, told Reuters.

"We're just ordinary people trying to express our deep disappointment with how slow the process of getting climate change action to occur is taking place, with the government not really listening, not really taking it forward on the scale it needs to be taken."

The group wants Britain to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 rather than the government's 2050 target.

Meanwhile, activists blocked major roads and demonstrated in Australian cities Tuesday in a second day of global protests by the Extinction Rebellion movement demanding more urgent actions to counter climate change.

In Brisbane, protesters chained themselves to intersections in the city center and three people locked themselves onto barrels filled with concrete. A protester hanging from a harness beneath Brisbane's Story Bridge and brandishing "climate emergency" flags was taken into police custody and charged with unregulated high-risk activity.

Queensland police confirmed 29 people - ranging in age from 19 to 75 - were arrested in the city, and six others were arrested in Sydney after lying in a downtown street intersection.

More than 100 protesters dressed as bees at Sydney's Hyde Park to highlight their claim that insects are under threat due to the impact of humans on the environment.

Some activists camped at Melbourne's Carlton Gardens overnight before marching to a street corner locked down by more than 100 protesters in inclement weather. Police arrested 59 people for blocking an intersection.

"I don't know that shutting the city down necessarily wins you many friends," Victoria premier Daniel Andrews said.

In Perth, about 50 protesters converged outside the offices of The West Australian, the city's daily newspaper. The front page of Tuesday's paper was left intentionally blank for protesters to use as a placard.

Two protesters were arrested after trying to enter the offices of Seven West Media - which houses The West Australian.

A bigger event is planned for Friday, when activists are set to descend on Perth's city center.

The activists are running a "Spring Rebellion" series of demonstrations to pressure the Australian government into declaring a climate emergency.

Founded in Britain last year, Extinction Rebellion has chapters in some 50 countries and wants to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2025.