A HEXHAM doctor who has taken part in Extinction Rebellion protests said she believes she has a "moral responsibility" to raise awareness of the climate emergency.
Dr Gill Turner, a consultant paediatrician at Hexham General Hospital, travelled to London earlier this month to take part in some of the environmental activist group's protests.
"Climate change is the biggest threat to health that we have ever seen," said Dr Turner.
"This will impact on my patients here in Northumberland.
"I can't simply focus on children's health and wellbeing now when I have the knowledge that by the time they are 40 or 50 their lives and their children's lives will be devastated by the effects of what is happening right now.
"I have a moral responsibility to do all I can to raise awareness of the frightening urgency of this situation."
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Dr Turner, who lives near Hexham, first became involved with Extinction Rebellion in 2019 and said she attended marches as a "general concerned citizen", rather than as a doctor.
She said: "I had hoped that all the evidence from scientists and public health professionals would have culminated in a successful outcome from COP26 in Glasgow last November.
"In fact, global emissions are still going up and we have no binding agreements from governments to bring them down in time to avoid catastrophic global warming.
"The recent IPCC report confirmed my worst fears, that global warming and environmental damage is progressing even more rapidly than predicted.
"The announcement of the Government's new energy strategy with proposals to increase fossil fuel extraction made it completely clear that the people making the big decisions either haven't understood the gravity of the situation or care more about money and immediate political concerns than about our children's futures."
She added: "It was this time I really felt I needed to stand up as a doctor and paediatrician, particularly with responsibility for children's health."
Dr Turner joined several thousand demonstrators in marching through London on Saturday, April 9 and Sunday, April 10.
Along with members of the Doctors for Extinction Rebellion group, they then staged a sit-down protest on Lambeth Bridge, where they prevented vehicles from crossing. They allowed ambulances and fire engines to pass.
Six health professionals were arrested, said Dr Turner.
Dr Turner said the number of excess deaths each year in the UK caused by air pollution is "huge", and said it also has an impact on children's asthma.
Air pollution was recorded as a medical cause of death of a nine-year-old girl who lived in London who suffered a fatal asthma attack.
Ella Kissi-Debrah was believed to be the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as the cause of death on their death certificate.
"I think it's something people don't think about in Hexham," said Dr Turner.
"But because we have got lots of traffic that goes through Hexham and lots of diesel vehicles, it is an issue for children's respiratory health now."
She added: "The impact of climate change globally will mean that there will be food shortages, there will be food insecurity, and that will impact on the way our children's and our grandchildren's lives."
Dr Turner said she plans on attending more protests, and also wants to speak to people locally about what things they think need to be done.
"I feel there's a danger that we all get quite focused on whether we're composting and whether you drive an electric car, and not that we shouldn't do what we can, but the pace of change is now such that big decisions have to be made on a global level to really shift everything away from fossil fuels," said Dr Turner.
"And that's not going to be done by a few of us changing lightbulbs.
"It's going to be by major change in the way our whole political-economic system works globally. So that takes a massive amount of lots of people standing up in ways they haven't stood up before.
"One of the things that I really like about Extinction Rebellion is the absolute commitment to non-violence. This is about normal people standing up and saying things strongly, but not resorting to getting violent."
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