Environmentalist and broadcaster Chris Packham has brought together powerful voices on climate change in a special Earth Day edition of The Big Issue magazine he has guest-edited.

Packham said the magazine was a constant reminder that inequality, and sometimes ignorance and intolerance, remain an “inescapable insult to our intelligence and our all-too-insular lives”.

He added: “But the reality is simple – any little privilege you might find comfort in now will be gone tomorrow unless we all act to make a difference, a difference there is still time to make. Just.”

Greta Thunberg, Professor Brian Cox, writer Emma Mitchell and former Cop26 president Claire O’Neill are among those interviewed for the magazine.

The Big Issue
(The Big Issue)

In an exclusive interview, Ms Thunberg tells The Big Issue that despite the scale of the crisis she remains hopeful, saying: “We can sit and do nothing and that may feel very hopeless, but as soon as we start taking action, there is hope.

“So that’s the mentality I’m trying to live off. And just imagine if we started to actually take action – I mean, we don’t know what that could lead to.”

Big Issue editor Paul McNamee said: “There is no more vital time to welcome this week’s guest editor, Chris Packham, one of Britain’s best, boldest and most influential broadcasting and environmental voices.

“Chris doesn’t do things by half. As well as the world’s leading teenage influencer Greta Thunberg and the best spaceman of all, Dr Brian Cox, he has assembled a collection of creators, thinkers, agitators and changemakers who have lit a beacon for change.

“And importantly, he provides a guide for what we can all do next. It’s an edition of hope and practical change.”

The magazine is on sale from Monday.