‘It’s a Huge Step Backwards’: Teenagers Hunger Striking to Stop the UK’s Newest Coal Mine

Read time: 6 mins

It’s 5pm on a dismal Monday and commuters are scurrying past Parliament on their way home. In the fast-fading light it’s easy to miss a solitary teenager perched on a wet ledge and holding up a cardboard sign.

This is the ninth day that 14-year-old Lissy Green has deprived herself of food. The schoolgirl from Ascot, Berkshire, is one of a clutch of young activists opposing plans for a deep coal mine in West Cumbria – the UK’s first in 30 years.