SCOTTISH STUDENTS DEMAND URGENT CLIMATE ACTION FROM GOVERNMENT

Students across Scotland will be striking for the climate today to coincide with the second global school strike for climate – along with over 1500 locations around the world.

The strikes were started in August 2018 by the Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg and have since been mirrored across the world. Students will be marching and protesting for urgent government action on the climate crisis.

There will be marches in Edinburgh from The Meadows to Parliament from 11am-1pm. Another march will take place in Glasgow from People’s Palace to George Square, with static protests across Scotland, including Peebles, Aberdeen, Fort William, Skelmorlie, Aboyne, Fort William, Nairn, Stirling and Ullapool.

The last global strike on Friday 15 March 2019 involved around 10,000 students striking across Scotland with organisers expecting even larger numbers this Friday. As with the strike in March 2019, the City of Edinburgh Council has once again passed an emergency motion allowing students to attend the march during school time this Friday.

As a direct result of climate strikes, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon declared a climate emergency at the recent SNP conference. MPs at Westminster followed suit by passing the opposition motion declaring a climate emergency, although the Conservative Government still hasn’t acknowledged this declaration. Organisers say the purpose of today’s strike in Scotland is to urge politicians and the Government to act on the climate emergency which they have declared and make the fight against climate breakdown a top priority.

Neelu Saraswatibhatla,17, from Edinburgh said : “Business as usual will result in climate destruction, and disruption is necessary in order to force governments to take urgent action, as the alternative is death. That is why students across the world will strike this Friday: we are terrified for our futures and are doing all we can to stop destruction. We are the ones who will be most affected by climate breakdown but we are not being taken seriously enough, so protesting is the only way we have to make our voices heard.”

Sandy Boyd, 15, from Edinburgh said : “I am striking from school this Friday because I am fed up with just hearing words and declarations. Now more than ever is the time when we need to be taking action. The world’s scientists have stated that we only have 11 years left to safeguard our future, and this issue still is not being acted upon.”

Caitlin Conway, 14, from Edinburgh said : “I’m striking because climate change is one of the biggest problems of our world, and people need to see that. Striking means a chance at a future.”

Kenneth MacIver, 13, from Edinburgh said : “The climate crisis is the defining issue of our lifetime. It’s more important than almost anything else. People have always said to me, ‘the future is yours’, but our inaction as a species is taking that away from our generation and future ones. I want to be able to say to my kids and grandkids that I did everything I could, which is why I’ll be marching this Friday.”

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.