WATCH: Interview With Lorna Slater, Co-Leader Of The Scottish Greens
Journalists from Lesmahagow High School met with Lorna Slater – Co-leader of the Scottish Greens – on Buchanan Street, Glasgow. Slater spoke of the pressing need for climate action and discussed transport, buying local produce and international co-operation.
Throughout the interview, we asked Lorna Slater a variety of different questions to do with the climate crisis. She is Co-Leader of the Scottish Greens and as she is now a member in government, she has a voice that can be heard by many, influencing changes and action to be taken on this issue. This gives young people hope for the future that policies can be put in place and actions will be taken through COP26 to stop the climate crisis.
The first question we asked Lorna Slater was surrounding the education primary and secondary school children receive on the current climate crisis. We asked: “Do you think more could be done to educate primary and secondary school pupils on the impacts of climate change and what we can all do as individuals to help prevent it escalating further?” Slater replied that in her experience, she has found that young people understand climate change really well and are not the problem. In fact, she believes that young people are doing a great job at educating other generations as well as themselves on the issue and are continuing to make a difference.
With Slater now being a member in government, we questioned her on the action being taken surrounding one of the main issues with climate change: transport. We asked: “What could be done to make public transport more accessible for individuals in Scotland as prices are going up and services are being cut?” Slater simply replied that the answer is to make public transport cheaper, and cheaper for everyone with policies such as free bus travel for all those in Scotland under 22 starting in January. Slater suggested that Scotland is on the road to change and hoping that other countries will follow in our footsteps to help promote the use of public transport. We then questioned her on whether she thinks this will open up to other modes of transport such as trains to which she agreed that more moves should be taken to achieve further free transport for all.
We followed on from this by asking: “Do you feel enough is being done in the UK to tackle climate change?” Lorna replied that a lot has been done in the form of school strikes amongst young people which has had a positive impact on the issue by bringing attention to and vocalising the issue, which she feels should young people should be thanked for.
With Scotland having many excellent agricultural and rural areas which thrive in farming ,we asked Slater whether she supported the idea that we should buy local. We asked: “what do you think could be done to promote buying local and reduce emissions caused by the international transport of these products?” Slater enthusiastically replied, stating that we have very high quality agriculture and great farming with a long tradition of producing good quality food. She believes that we can do more to promote our great produce that we produce here as well as encouraging people to buy and share it.
With climate change being a current crisis throughout the world, we asked: “What do you think the world will look like if we do not meet our global targets set at COP26?”. She replied with the worrying fact that if our planet continues to work to above a 3 degree increase, there will be worldwide food and water shortages and half of Glasgow could be underwater, with the disappearance of our vibrant coral reefs. However, if we see a 6 degree rise in temperatures, 95% of species will go extinct. Slater finished with the statement that saving our planet is not optional and must be done.
By Kirsty Russell and Nicole Richmond
Watch the full interview below:
By Brooke Sharkey, Kirsty Russell, Nicole Richmond and Lewis Douglas.
