TORONTO -- A flight from London to Dublin was delayed on Thursday after a climate change protester disrupted take-off by refusing to sit down.

The unidentified man held up the flight while announcing 鈥渨e have two generations of human civilization left if we carry on doing what we鈥檙e doing.鈥

鈥淚鈥檓 very sorry. I鈥檓 extremely sorry for the inconvenience,鈥 the smartly dressed protester added in a .

When asked to sit down by a flight attendant, the protester said he did not 鈥渨ish to fly with you, but I don鈥檛 wish to get off.鈥

鈥淲ell you鈥檒l be thrown off,鈥 a frustrated passenger shouted in reply while a chorus of passengers vented their annoyance at the man who was dressed in a shirt and tie.

鈥淐an you do us all a favour and remove him from the plane?鈥 Swalbe asked the flight attendant.

鈥淗ow long are you going to be?鈥 another adds. 鈥淪it down and make your protest,鈥 a third added.

BBC Newsnight editor Nicholas Watt happened to be on the flight andabout the incident as it unfolded.

He said the flight was on the runway, about to take off, when a 鈥渟martly dressed man in late middle age鈥 stood up to 鈥渄eliver (a) lecture on climate change up and down the aisle.鈥

The flight was forced to return to the gate, Watt wrote, to be met by police when the protester was escorted off the plane.

鈥淭he final irony of the climate protest on our flight,鈥 Watt tweeted. 鈥淲e cannot take off until we have taken on extra fuel... to replace the fuel used up during the protest, our pilot notes with humour.鈥 

In the fourth day of Extinction Rebellion protests in London the several people blocking the entrance to London City Airport as one man climbed on top of a plane and others glued themselves to the floor.