Over 100K Protest for Climate Justice in Glasgow Scotland
In Cop26 news, on Saturday as government leaders and climate change experts were holding discussions in Glasgow, Scotland, tens of thousands converged to protest against more talk and to advocate for climate justice. News Five’s Duane Moody captured the event.
Duane Mood, Reporting
From as early as six a.m., vehicular traffic in downtown Glasgow City was blocked and remained that way for as long as twelve hours as a massive protest was organized in response to the United Nation Conference of the Parties, referred to as COP26, which was underway at the Scottish Event Campus in the Finneston area of the city.
Duane Moody
“I am here in Kelvingrove Park in Scotland where thousands – we are being told up to a hundred thousand persons – have gathered for climate justice. The young, the old – they are all out here trying to send a message to world leaders that they want action. Enough with the talk shop, enough with the bla bla bla; we need to act now. They have gathered here and they will move some two and a half miles to George’s Park which is across from the Queen Street Station where a rally will take place.”
Maz Vandy, Socialist Workers Party
“The reason why I’ve got this washboard is to wash away the lies and the filth of the government, the world leaders. They need to wake up and that’s why I am here with the extinction rebellion in Morecambe Bay, in Cumbria and Lancaster Trade Union.”
Joining in the parade is Belizean at heart, Christopher Minty. Minty lived in Belize for eight years, surveying the mangrove forests in the early 1990′s and working with the Las Cuevas project in the Chiquibul. These days, he is living with his family in Scotland and is part of Secure Forests, a non-profit that believes that every forest should be protected for the future of our planet.
“We’re really witnessing the public opinion and the sense of public opinion at the moment. There is a palpable sense of anger as over a hundred thousand people have gathered in Glasgow to really get a message across to world leaders that it is time for action; it’s time for real action on the ground, not just receiving money and talking. And we’ll be watching. We’ll be watching world leaders and not just world leaders of the west and the developed world, but we are watching those world leaders of the developing world, the people, the recipients of the money. We are not just watching world leaders, we are watching civil servants, we are watching diplomats, we are watching everyone that’s acting in our name and our taxpayers’ money and the way that we deal with this crisis.”
The majority walked the entire distance, through main thoroughfares in the city. But I did find a group of cyclists who joined in the protest.
Anne Glass, Glasgow Cycling Club
“We’ve got dozens and dozens of cyclists today from all over Scotland. People have come from up north and cycled all week to get here. They’ve been cycling through this weather – we know from being out and about, we know that we need to look after our communities, we need to look after our children, we need to look after our neighbors; we need to ensure that their future is going to be safe.”
Duane Moody
“Do you feel that our leaders are not listening?”
Anne Glass
“Absolutely, they are talking about things that’s gonna happen in the future when the climate change is now. And we need to make the changes now and it is immediate. It’s not twenty or thirty or forty years in the future. They don’t have the tools, they are talking about tools to use and techniques to use in the future, but the climate change and the justice needs to happen now.”
The protest is one way to get the attention of leaders, but it is also a means of sharing information on the damaging effects of climate change, especially to small island developing states like Belize. One organization, Climate Fresk throughout the route and on a daily basis have been out engaging passersby on what they should know about climate change – its causes, the effects and what they can do.
Romayn Bes De Berc, Facilitator, Climate Fresk
“The goal is really to help people understand what is climate change and so that they can maybe take action and also to spread the knowledge because if there are more people that are aware and understand what is climate change, well the action might follow the good way. So we are here also because it is a really good opportunity to spread the knowledge all over the world and we are already doing workshops in more than fifty countries.”
Reporting from Glasgow Central in Scotland, UK, Duane Moody for News Five.
