A GROUP of concerned citizens in Swindon has joined a nationwide network advocating civil disobedience to avoid what they say is a coming climate catastrophe.

The Extinction Rebellion network started last month in the wake of dire warnings from the UN Intergovernmental Panel and Climate change that predicted a dangerous and life-threatening rise in global temperatures above 1.5 degrees as soon as 2030.

The group has planned a day of peaceful mass disobedience in London on November 17.

Helen Harris, who lives in Highworth, organised a meeting last night at Darkroom Espresso to exchange ideas and information about the group.

She explained to the Adver her reason for setting up the local branch.

"The overall change is just phenomenal," she said. "This summer has really worried me, there were so few butterflies and bees. I know that it was a hot summer, but just the total of dearth of insect and bird life, this is really dangerous.

“It’s not just this country it’s the whole world.

“There is nowhere else for us to go, there is no new environment. This is it.

“What we’re looking at is possibly millions of people dying in the next fifty years. That is a terrifying prospect."

The local group has been pushed to act over what they see as a lack of political engagement with climate change, despite the potentially existential warnings from recent reports.

The IPCC report called for urgent action by governments to limit further warning beyond one degree, which is already causing more frequent serious hurricanes and droughts.

The Living Planet 2018 report by the WWF, the world’s largest conservation charity, found that since 1970 there had been a 60 per cent decline is all mammalian vertebrates.

“[But] there was no way of bringing this to the fore in the current political system democratically," added Helen.

"We just had the budget and there was nothing about climate change. So we have to do it in another way."