ENVIRONMENT activists are preparing to push a boat 50 miles from Brighton to London.

Extinction Rebellion will be hauling the 20ft model vessel – named Greta – to join the organisation’s “national rebellion” in London next week.

They will set off on Sunday and it is expected to take them six days to push the red and white model lightship to the capital.

The boat, named after teenage activist Greta Thunberg, is used by the campaigners to symbolise “sounding the alarm about the climate crisis”.

Speaking about the climate crisis, Claudia Fisher of Extinction Rebellion Brighton said: “The government knows that global heating means catastrophe – chaos, fires, flood and famine – and we are already seeing these effects around the world and here in the UK.

“The United Nations estimates there are already 25 million climate refugees and this number is expected to double over the next five years.

“And it won’t stop there. The Red Cross believes that as many as one billion people will be displaced by climate change over the next four decades.

“This is the reality of what we face and the world we are leaving behind for our children.”

The launch is one of a series of weekend events in Brighton planned by local branches of Extinction Rebellion, which will feed into the nationwide demonstration in the capital.

From Tuesday onwards, Extinction Rebellion groups from across the UK will be demonstrating at the Houses of Parliament, reiterating the organisation’s demands for climate action.

On Saturday at noon, concerned members of the public will rally at Pavilion Gardens in Brighton and march to the seafront to demand immediate government action to address the climate breakdown, climate justice and the struggle for social justice championed by Black Lives Matter.

Protesting under the banner “We All Want to Live”, the march is jointly organised by Extinction Rebellion branches in Brighton, Worthing, Shoreham and Lewes with the support of local Black Lives Matter activists.

The two organisations are collaborating in recognition that climate breakdown and social justice are strongly interconnected.

Tomorrow there will be a “bike swarm” protests at The Level in Brighton.