Thom Yorke fronts Friends of the Earth's Big Ask at Parliament

Thom Yorke spoke at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 25 May, at the press conference launching The Big Ask, Friends of the Earth's national campaign on climate change. He is its Special Representative, his first public role for the organisation. He already backs Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign.

The UK is failing to meet its climate change targets, and The Big Ask wants a new law making the government cut the country's carbon dioxide emissions by three per cent every year. Friends of the Earth says that would make the existing target for 2050 easier and cheaper to reach. The launch comes with press, cinema and television adverts and a nationwide petition, and Yorke is calling on thousands of people to back it. The Birmingham Post reports an NOP poll for the launch which finds 73 per cent of people think the government is not doing enough.

Yorke tells Xfm he has worked with Friends of the Earth on and off for a few years, and with the science now plainly proven, it felt like the moment when they asked. Of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report, he says the projected consequences that have been written up by the climatologists are just, just mind boggling. And the public are just seeing the surface of this.¹ Putting it off brings disaster on everyone and their children, and governments are the ones who have to be persuaded. It cannot be done on a voluntary basis. It's gotta be a law.¹

Radiohead are at work on the follow-up to Hail to the Thief. Xfm asked how the band's writing and rehearsal sessions were going. I don't... Really... Know... Yet. [laughs]. I avoided that didn't I?¹