Activists, climate activists in particular, are often portrayed as nuisance making ineffectual layabouts deserving of the wrath of the slightly inconvenienced public.
Images of protesters being attacked by angry mobs or carried away by the police are a mainstay in the pages of the billionaire owned press, accompanied by stories suggesting the naked moral truancy of organisations such as XR, proclaiming “This is not how to protest” and “Throw the key away, how dare they highlight our shortcomings”.
In the face of such adversity stands the individual. Risking limb and liberty to hold up a placard demanding an audience for their cause.
In this blog we search for the reason why?
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) begins 31/10/21 hosted by the UK. Its aim is “Uniting the world to tackle climate change” a goal already compromised by leaks exposing several countries actively lobbying against the 2021 UN climate Change report.
A report that begins with the words “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.”
Why would an individual take to the streets, in this case Glasgow, when World leaders such as Bolsonaro and Putin can’t be bothered to turn up. Why would a responsible person take time out of their busy lives to chant demands at the doors of yet another lukewarm deliberation over established facts by a political class unable and uninterested in real change.
We follow 9 members of our local environmental group who have made the journey from London to Glasgow, to find out why this action is so important to them and why watching the unfolding in the bought-and-paid-for media is not an option.
Wanstead Climate Action 