Good Morning Britain welcomed Donald Bell onto the show today to discuss his Extinction Rebellion protest at the Cenotaph during yesterday’s Remembrance Day service. He left both Susanna Reid, Ben Shephard and viewers at home furious with his remark that the service was a “little ritual” as he defended his actions.
“The thing is, I’m trying to stop a war. When we have a government that has already agreed, I mean there was a report in June this year on how the government has failed on all but two of the 31 milestones it set itself for red emissions and its failing terribly,” Donald explained.
Susanna replied: “Of course, there is an important point to be made about climate change. It’s a crisis, of course.
“But Remembrance Day is about remembering those who’ve served and lost their lives in our wars.
“It is not about climate change, it’s about a very sacred day of Remembrance.”
READ MORE: Extinction Rebellion sabotages Cenotaph with climate protest
“As far as the political side of this country is concerned, it’s just something they go through every year and I don’t feel like they really respect the loss of life, that massive loss of life,” Donald explained
Former Afghanistan Marine Ben McBean told Mr Bell “you’re not saving the world” by “tiptoeing over poppies” at the Cenotaph.
“Here’s the thing, everyone understands climate change,” Ben remarked.
“We’ve all got to do more but the reality is it takes brains, science, technology and costs a lot of money.
“Right now, we don’t have the resources to do that. We can’t just say stop jumping on jumbo jets, driving cars and combusting engines. We know we need to be better but right now, we don’t have the technology to be better, ask any scientist.
“We can’t just change the world right now and save the planet. Sir David Attenborough travels to Antarctica to tell us about penguins and tell us about climate change but he travels there by jumbo jet because that’s the world we live in now.
“We all understand climate change, which I agree with but right now, we just don’t have the ability to do the right thing.”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV at 6am.