What Is Protesting And Why Does It Happen?
Protesting is when a group of people disapprove of something that is happening. The most common form of protesting is when there is a large gathering of people who want the same things to change. Protesting allows the public to make their opinions known to people in power, like the government. Protestors try to pressure the people with power to change their ways.
In countries where people have freedom of speech, protesting is an important right. This means that they can come together to make clear their views on issues. Some protestors might use banners or placards, whilst others might disrupt things, by blocking roads or chanting or chaining themselves to railings. They want to make themselves a nuisance to get their points across.
In the UK, there have been lots of protests over the last few years. This includes against the Iraq War, fox hunting and climate change. In other countries, where protesting against the government is forbidden, people have been jailed or even killed for standing up for their views.
Not all protesters of COP26 want the same outcome.
For example, many people are protesting COP26 because they want the government to make efforts to stop climate change. However, some people are protesting COP26 because they do not want things to change. A common concern is the amount of money that it would cost to make these changes. Some people are cautions of the changes that they will have to make in their personal lives. For example, not eating red meat, recycling and the inconvenience of sustainable transport like cycle lanes. Even so these cons are outweighed by the pros. Stopping the extinction of some animals, reducing extreme weather, increasing biodiversity and creating bigger and better food sources is far more important.
Some people argue that protesting does not work. They think that the protestors would be far better off focusing their time trying to become the people in power to make these decisions. Other people would argue that the people in power need encouraged and reminded that they should do what the people who voted for them ask them to do.
Over the coming days protesting will play as large a part of COP26 as the world leaders do.
-Molly Owens, Emma Ballantyne, and Christopher Govan
