This week’s climate-change marches have brought out some colorful characters with pretty far-out views, among those being actress Emma Thompson, who likened the fight against fossil fuels to the fight against apartheid.
Thompson took the stage at London’s march on Sunday, urging the crowd to boycott events with ties to fossil-fuel companies, including sporting events and media.
“Just as we argued in the 1980s that those who conducted business with apartheid South Africa were aiding and abetting an immoral system, we can say that nobody should profit from raising temperatures, seas, flooding, human suffering, poverty caused by the burning of fossil fuels,” Thompson said.
Among her reforms, she pushed for “car-free days” and forcing energy companies to air health warnings regarding fossil fuels.
“If the future is not green, there is no future,” she concluded. “If the future is not you, there is no future.”
This isn’t Thompson’s first foray into staging a boycott: In 2012, she joined a group of thespians calling on London’s Globe Theatre to withdraw its invitation to an Israeli company for their “shameful record of involvement with illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Habima, the theatre company, went on to perform “The Merchant of Venice.”
For scenes from the marches, make sure to check out National Review Online’s slideshow here.