“Friday’s For Future” Protest

Written By Cara McDade, Images From CEN

World leaders, delegates and organisations have been the main focus of the week, but today the voice of the people was heard!

The main message we heard today was “take action.”

People are very worried about the future of the planet, but at the same time we felt a large atmosphere of hope. We met people who travelled to Glasgow from all over the world. They went that distance because they felt that hope too. Everyone was here today as it’s not too late to make a difference and if we all work together our planet will be saved.

Transport and Fossil Fuels

Many activists here today were focused on transport and fossil fuels. Earlier in the week 20 countries agreed to stop financing coal abroad by 2022, and phase out all use of coal by the 2040’s. However some major coal users such as China and the US have not committed. Some protestors still feel like this progress is not fast enough and also not good enough, as so many countries have not agreed.

Within this issue, how we individually choose to travel and therefore do or don’t use fossil fuels is important. This young activist feels restricted in the ways they can travel as “The transport system in Scotland is not accessible.” Similar restrictions to activism were seen earlier this week at COP26 when minister “Karine Elharrar” from Israel struggled to get access into COP26, because she was a wheelchair user.

Glasgow Protest Gone Global

Today’s protest didn’t just have Scottish activists. There were people from all over the world and everyone was aware of the attention the protest would receive. All week we’ve heard that eyes were on Glasgow but today we have truly witnessed the extent of that.

On the right, a 71 year old activist who travelled all the way from Sweden on bike!

Other important climate activists from all over the world have also shown their support, including Al Gore (VP to President Bill Clinton and Founder of “The Climate Reality Project.” Mr Gore tweeted a message of hope and support to the protestors stating that “The Future is in your hands.”

Some of our CEN journalists were lucky enough to meet one of our Scottish political leaders today. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar gave us a few words of hope and the point of “Take Action” was highlighted once again. Mr Sarwar told us that world leaders need to “Take the promises and Turn them into action…Talk is easy it’s time for action.”

Key Activists!

3 young girls attended the protest today to show their support to Greta Thunberg with their homemade masks and signs stating “Save the planet”

Another hopeful young activist was spotted.

Finally we met our new favourite activist Fudge!

We had a great day out at the protest and we, like the other activists here today hope that the event helps drive forward the change we need to see to save our planet!

Thanks to everyone we met and interviewed.

Information and media provided by CEN journalists live reports from the protest.

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