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An environmental group blocked traffic Sunday in downtown Halifax as part of a protest with the message that climate change could wipe out humanity.

Extinction Rebellion has been sounding the alarm about effecting urgent global change immediately to avoid drought, floods, extreme poverty and poverty for millions.

Bundled up against a bitter winter wind, Justin Lundrigan and his son Jaylen, 5, were among more than 150 protesters who gathered near Halifax Central Library and later moved Spring Garden Road.

“It’s important for us to be here, cold or not,” Lundrigan said. “We’re in the middle of a crisis. It’s time for the government to wake up and understand, to address the problem and to inform us, stop hiding really, because that’s essentially what they’re doing, they’re hiding the facts.”

Jaylen Lundrigan, 5, holds a sign referring to the consequences of climate change at a protest organized by the Extinction Rebellion group in downtown Halifax on Sunday. - John McPhee

Lundrigan said he’s “ very concerned” about the future that awaits his son and wants government to get serious about alternative energy sources.

‘Every time I look at kids nowadays, it just breaks my heart to know where we’re headed,” he said. “A lot of times, the opposition we get, supporters of oil, supporters of fossil fuels, they have a huge concern of losing their jobs but ... I think your jobs and your cars and your toys are going to be irrelevant in an uninhabitable planet.”

Vehicles initially had to stop and turn around on Spring Garden when the protesters moved into the street. But Halifax Regional Police eventually blocked off the street as people carrying signs with slogans such as There’s No Planet B and Put the Brakes on Climate Change chanted and sang songs at the intersection of Spring Garden and Queen Street.

Earlier in the protest, the group symbolized the threats to species such as the piping plover, Blanding’s turtle and the sea mink in a “die-in” as people lay down on the ground holding signs with the species’ names.

A group that has spread internationally from its beginnings in the United Kingdom, Extinction Rebellion points to reports such as the United Nations intergovernmental panel report released in October, which said dire consequences can only be avoided by preventing global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next dozen years.

Patrick Yancey of Antigonish, spokesman for the group’s local chapter, said Sunday that the protest was part of “Rebellion Week” being held across Canada.

“Our concerns are that according to scientific consensus, we’re on course for extinction,” Yancey said.

“Our current course is up to like three or four degrees warming and that is just an uninhabitable disaster according to everything we know. So we feel our governments have let us down, they have failed to protect our lives and our livelihoods, they’ve broken the social contract and therefore have lost their legitimacy. So we think it’s every citizen’s right and duty to stand up and rebel non-violently.”

The protest ended at about 2 p.m. after police escorted the group as they marched up Spring Garden to South Park Street and back to the library.