from Sunday Herald, 29 November 2015
Political parties, green campaigners, faith groups, trade unionists, students and an array of pantomime animals braved the biting wind and rain in Edinburgh yesterday to demand global action to cut the pollution that is causing climate chaos.
Over 5,000 colourfully dressed protestors from across Scotland marched through the city from the Meadows to Princes Street Gardens in the bitter cold to a rally demanding “climate justice” from world leaders gathering in Paris on Monday.
The march was Scotland’s contribution to more than 2,300 actions around the world designed to put pressure on negotiators at the United Nations climate summit. Up to 200 countries will be deciding over the next two weeks what they must do to prevent global warming causing more floods, droughts, heatwaves and other disasters.
The march was organised by the umbrella group, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, which urged leaders not to let the world down, as they did in Copenhagen in 2009. “We will be watching you,” the coalition’s chair, Tom Ballantine told the rally.
“We demand action because science and honesty require it,” he declared. “We demand action because justice requires it for our children and generations to come” and for “fairness for the poorest people in the most fragile places”.
Continue reading "Over 5,000 march for action to cut climate pollution" »