Eco activists who have gone without food for 14 days are warning that Britain could be just years away from mass starvation.

Three Extinction Rebellion (XR) hunger strikers slammed the lack of action from government, urging Britain’s political parties to meet them and back their ‘Three Demands Bill’.

Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Peter Cole, 76, Marko Stepanov, 67, and Petra Metzger, 37, said they would try to continue their demonstration until the ‘climate election’ on December 12 – despite two weeks of not eating leaving them weak and putting their bodies in ‘starvation mode’.

The trio are among seven strikers in Britain who remain outside the headquarters of political parties, with one 83-year-old grandmother restarting her strike after a week off. More are expected to join them, XR say, adding that around 500 others have pledged to take similar action worldwide.

Mr Cole said he felt ‘slow’ because of his ‘necessary’ strike, motivated out of fear for the future of his children and grandchildren, aged two and four.

Referring to different parties’ stances on becoming carbon neutral, the retired professor of respiratory medicine, from Tower Hamlets, said: ‘If the Tories wait until 2045, they will be in their swimming costumes – it requires action now, before we get to a tipping point where it will be irreversible.’

XR’s bill calls for politicians to ‘tell the truth’, by declaring a Climate and Ecological Emergency; ‘act now’ to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to go ‘beyond party politics’, by creating an environmental Citizens’ Assembly.

The group say they will not eat until they meet all political party leaders, who they want to hold a one hour recorded discussion with on climate. Only the Conservatives and Brexit Party are yet to make contact.

Ms Metzger, an art and design lecturer originally from German, explained that it was becoming hard to sit outside in the cold, adding that she felt ‘light-headed and weak’.

She added that the first few days of striking are the hardest, since you experience hunger pains, before the body enters ‘starvation mode’ – but said she made the choice from a position of privilege not enjoyed by 820 million people currently starving worldwide.

Ms Metzger, who is stationed outside Labour’s HQ in an effort to get leader Jeremy Corbyn to agree to a conversation, explained: ‘We need to understand how vulnerable we are in order to survive. We are in an absolutely crucial time.

‘Going on hunger strike is a choice… there are millions of people that can’t choose.’

She continued: ‘(Britain’s) food supply is extremely vulnerable – we import 60% to 70%. We are in such a precarious situation, we face mass starvation.

‘The crucial thing is people start to really recognise that… this is not in the next 20 years, this is near term.’

XR – which has attracted attention for disruptive stunts in London and around the world – believes time has ‘almost entirely run out’ to address the environmental crisis, ‘including the 6th mass species extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change’. It adds that ‘societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices.’

Mr Stepanov, also a grandfather, called for Britain to lead a ‘green revolution’ to avoid that fate, and said: ‘The industrial revolution changed the world but now the technology is old and it is just not sustainable.’

The London artist, who is outside Conservative Party HQ with Mr Cole, also urged the public to pressure governments on the environment and avoid buying products made using fossil fuels.

They are currently drinking water with salt and taking vitamins, to avoid major health issues. Trained XR first aiders are also on site.

Speaking as XR began its latest action – 12 days of crisis – the pair were keen to quote an old native American proverb, which says: ‘When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.’

The Brexit Party did not offer a comment. The Conservative Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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