HUNDREDS of protesters are gathering this weekend to host a funeral for life on earth.

The Brighton branch of Extinction Rebellion, a national movement fighting climate change, will be marching through the city tomorrow to raise awareness of species extinction and the impact of the earth’s temperature heating up.

The funeral procession will be led by a piper sounding a lament.

Calvin Moore, of Extinction Rebellion Brighton, said: “We are the first generation of human beings to fully grasp the extent of our impacts and the last generation of human beings with the power to change them.

“Those of us listening to the scientists can see where we are currently headed: towards our own imminent extinction.

“Time is running out, but it’s not too late.”

Mr Moore said technology is available to prevent climate change “spiralling out of control”.

He said: “The problem is that governments around the world, ours included, lack the political will to act.

“We demand they treat it as the unprecedented global emergency it is, so this generation can leave behind a world fit for those to come.”

A coffin will be carried during the procession to symbolise the effects climate change will have on wildlife.

There will be 11 mourners wearing black veils following the coffin, symbolising the 11 years left to attempt to reverse the impact of climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change’s (IPCC) landmark report published at the end of last year.

Mr Moore said: “We will be handing out an order of service to those attending the march.

“It will detail the extremely alarming facts we have discovered in reports.

“According to the IPCC, 150 to 200 species become extinct every day, that’s one thousand times the natural amount.

“Sixty per cent of species have been lost since 1970.

“We need to keep raising awareness, that’s what we are here to do.”

The procession will leave from the corner of Montpelier Road and Western Road in Brighton at about 2.30pm.

It will go along Western Road to the Clock Tower, where a eulogy will be given and the Brighton Extinction Rebellion choir will sing Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire’s song Wake Up.

The gathered mourners will then share poems and thoughts about the grief the environment is facing, but also discuss the hopeful rise of environmental activism.

The ceremony will end with a declaration of the group’s aims and the tying of wish ribbons on olive trees.

The group has helped pressurise Brighton and Hove city council to declare a climate emergency in December last year following similar declarations made by Bristol, Stroud, Totnes and London.

The group also held a die-in, in Churchill Square shopping centre in January.

More than 80 activists lay down on the floor for 11 minutes, symbolising the 11 years

left to act to avoid climate catastrophe.