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Dear Attorney General, Richard Hermer KC,

This week has seen one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history. On Thursday 18th July, five people were given the highest sentences for nonviolent protest this country has ever seen. They were on trial for holding a zoom call, calling on others to take action to raise the alarm about the greatest threat humanity has ever faced: the climate and nature crises.

These sentences were handed down just days after the new government’s policy of no new licensing for oil and gas infrastructure was announced. In a world of sound, evidence-based governance, none of this needed to happen. With prisons at breaking point and the new government acting urgently to address this, how can these sentences be seen as anything other than insanity? The sentences, ranging from 4 to 5 years, are higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault. 

The defendants were denied the right to explain to a jury why they took the action they did, making a mockery of the right to a fair trial, with the judge saying that the Crown Prosecution’s agreed facts on climate collapse – including that the world has gone beyond 1.5 degrees for 12 consecutive months – were “neither here nor there”. These five brave, defiant people, like all nonviolent protestors, are fulfilling a necessary service by alerting the nation to the grave risk we all face, as scientists in their droves express their fear that many of the Earth’s systems are already at breaking point.

Immediately after the verdict, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders issued an extraordinary statement: “Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." 

According to the Office for National Statistics, 74% of people in the UK want urgent action on the climate crisis. Until a couple of weeks ago that majority was blocked by a Prime Minister who used climate – an existential threat – as a wedge issue in an election he lost. This new government has inherited a suite of recent legislation that conflicts with International Human Rights Law, and has put everyone’s right to peaceful protest at risk. The new government can address this now, as they have with fossil fuel licensing.

The world stands at a crossroads and so does our democracy. We write in support of Chris Packham and Dale Vince’s request for an urgent meeting with you, to be recorded so it is transparent to the public, to discuss the jailing of truth tellers and their silencing in court.

Sincerely, and with love for all humanity,

Rowan Williams
Chrissie Hynde
Danny Boyle
Es Devlin
Sir David King
Robin Ince
James Hansen, Climate Scientist 
Cornelia Parker CBE
Matt Black

Juliet Stevenson
Brian Eno
Chris Packham
Ben Okri
Carice van Houten
Bella Freud 
Monique Roffey
Dr Alex Lockwood
Jay Griffiths
Frankie Boyle
Adam McKay
Chris Martin
Annie Lennox
Susan Wokoma
Lemn Sissay
Alfie Allen
Bianca Jagger
Russell Tovey
Jarvis Cocker
Sian Berry MP
Clive Lewis MP
Maxine Peake
Stewart Lee
Alexei Sayle
Steve Coogan
Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC
Peter Stefanovic 
Farhana Yamin
Professor David Whyte
Professor Magaretha Wewerinke-Singh
Inga Hamilton
Bette Adriaanse
Matthew Todd
Tracey Seaward
Jeremy Deller