A NEW Orleans-style jazz funeral has been held in a town in north-east Cumbria... for a dying planet.

Musicians from the Lazy River Jazz Band led mourners through the centre of Alston on Saturday, as Extinction Rebellion Alston activists carried the coffin of Planet Earth.

The spectacle was staged to highlight the damage we are continuing to do to the environment and a coming climate crisis.

The procession started from Front Street at 2.30pm where poems with an environmental theme were recited. Local poet Josephine Dickinson read her poem Snow and others included It’s 3:23 In The Morning by Drew Dellinger and Climate Change by Elizabeth England, a pupil at Nenthead School.

The coffin was then carried to Alston’s town hall. But at the end of the procession it was transformed into a giant butterfly with wings bearing a picture of the planet – as a symbol of hope for the future.

The funeral was led by the Rev Mark Nash-Williams, vicar of Alston Moor and a member of Extinction Rebellion Alston.

He said: “We have very little time to act to avoid a global catastrophe – but the last thing we want to do is to despair.

“So we’re drawing attention to the state of the environment in a way which we hope will inspire people to make a difference themselves.

“The coffin represented the millions of species and hundreds of thousands of people who have already died because of climate change.

“But the butterfly was to say that there’s still time to turn this around and create a better world if we choose to. ”

The vicar is also advisor on the environment to the Bishop of Newcastle, the Right Rev Christine Hardman, and said: “On the same day the Diocesan Synod adopted a new environmental policy, about reducing our carbon footprint as quickly as we can and making care of creation a higher priority in our worship and teaching. We are also looking at what we can do to reduce carbon in our church buildings, vicarages and church halls.”

He said the main aim of the event was to raise awareness and inspire others to make the changes they could.

“In the last 12 months climate change has become a much bigger issue, partly thanks to Extinction Rebellion. I’m more hopeful now than I’ve been for a long time.

“What we need are large policy changes, but the Government won’t act unless there’s public support for it. More awareness makes it possible for politicians to act, and impossible for them not to act.”

Mr Nash-Williams added: “We had such positive reactions from people watching the procession. Even the car drivers who stopped to let us by were supportive.”