Families join climate-change march
FAMILIES from Derbyshire who joined a huge London protest calling for more action on climate change hailed it a great success.
The Bowler family used blue face-paint to show their support for The Wave, a demonstration calling for world leaders to cut their carbon emissions by 10% by the end of next year.
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wave of humanity: Marchers outside Parliament and, inset, some of the contingent who travelled to the capital from Derby Campaign Against Climate Change.
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demo day out: The Bowler family and friends, from left, Joseph Bowler, Sam Townsend, Callum Turner, Christopher Bowler, Peter Bowler and Lilly Bowler.
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They were among at least 120 people from Derbyshire who went to the march, which encircled the Houses of Parliament on Saturday.
At 3pm and 4pm the crowd, who were all told to wear blue, waved and shouted at the building in a bid to show Prime Minister Gordon Brown the national strength of feeling on climate change ahead of this month's Copenhagen summit.
World leaders will attend the summit to discuss a new treaty setting targets for industrialised nations to reduce emissions, and other targets for poorer nations to limit greenhouse gases.
Peter Bowler, 50, went to the march with children Joseph, 17, Lilly, 14, and Christopher, 11.
Mr Bowler, of Maple Avenue, Littleover, said campaigning could make people feel isolated but that the march had shown his children how many people felt the same way about the environment.
He said: "They are all part of a group called Derby Woodcraft which campaigns against climate change and they all wanted to come down.
"There's nowhere that's immune from climate change, Derbyshire included. The world's trade is so interconnected these days that when country suffers from flooding or drought the effects are felt everywhere.
"The children had a great time – it wasn't as if it was just a march, there was a band and music all along the route."
Three coaches of protesters, organised by Derby Preparing for Copenhagen Coalition, went to London from Derbyshire.
Peter Robinson, chairman of Derby Campaign Against Climate Change, which is part of the coalition, said: "The day was an outstanding success but a only a contribution to the ongoing challenge to tackle climate change."
The Prime Minister invited protest representatives to a hastily arranged meeting at Downing Street on Saturday.
After the meeting he said he knew how serious the situation was and described those who doubted scientific evidence as a "flat earth group".
He said he would try to persuade other world leaders of the need to back up environmental plans with the right finances.
17 Comments
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by Dave, Derby
Thursday, December 10 2009, 11:59AM
“Thats right cos governments have been very quick to pick up on climate change and it hasn't take decades of campaigning by environmental groups to get them kicking and screaming round a table.
Now we have a change to a pro-environmantal policy in the US and all of a sudden Climate Change is a big conspiracy...
Go figure...”
by steve, not in derbyshire
Monday, December 07 2009, 3:48PM
“I'm looking forward to my Pukka pie and chips tonight.”
by SaveTheV8, Derby
Monday, December 07 2009, 2:44PM
“Mark, can you not see that its you true believers who are the 'flat earthers'? Anyone who says 'the science is done - move on' about climate change clearly has no real interest in finding out if man made C02 is a problem or not. They just want to enforce their political agenda based on lies and falsified junk science. Science is never 'done' and you should be very wary of anyone that says it is.”
by Roy, Derby
Monday, December 07 2009, 2:24PM
“As you allude burtonftw, it's a stroke of genius to tax us on the weather.
The only thing left for them to tax us on is Percy Filth - at my age they won't get much out of me :)”
by burtonftw, derby
Monday, December 07 2009, 1:35PM
“climate change is man made.
in that i mean that someone has devised the very elegant plan to tax 'us' all for the last 60 years indulgence and bannered it under some 'operation climate change'. it's quite an apt name for it as our whole way of living changes.
the changing temperate and weather patterns of the earth are entirely natural - who knows they may be scared of a big fat tax and decide to remain in permanance. i doubt that though.”
by andy, derby
Monday, December 07 2009, 1:32PM
“Global warming is just another excuse for governments to increase taxes.”
by voltaire, man who knows everything
Monday, December 07 2009, 1:27PM
“Seems to me the people who are doing the protesting are the ones with the biggest carbon footprints. Guilty conscience's perhaps?
Maybe the ice-caps would stop melting if people stopped making unnecessary journeys to London and world leaders stopped holding meetings in places like Fiji and Mount Everest.”
by dave, home
Monday, December 07 2009, 1:17PM
“mark,ashbourne - you want to do your research more thoroughly.climate change has been happening before mankind existed,its not due to man made pollution.you should also read peoples comments more thoroughly too as no-one has said climate change is not happening,its the cause of climate change that everyone realises is not down to man made pollution.we know the world is not flat but your comment is.”
by John, Derby
Monday, December 07 2009, 12:02PM
“Unsurprising then that the world leaders choose to fly to Copenhagen. In this day and age they should look at holding conferences over the internet. The recent e-mails leaked show that the top scientists are trying to cover something up. Perhaps they are frightened of losing funding, if they don't back up their findings.”
by Jo, Derbys
Monday, December 07 2009, 11:47AM
“I watched a discussion between Ed Milliband and Nigel Lawson on The Politics show yesterday.It is clear there is a global scientific consensus
that global warming does indeed exist, and CO2 emmissions must be drastically reduced.
It is also my belief there is a dedicated "anti" lobby,
(?emanating from right wing factions in USA) and adopted in some circles- proliferated across the media.It makes things very confusing for the public.
I agree with Mark's comments here and previously; it's something we must all accept.
Will be interesting to hear outcomes from Copenhagen over the next few days.”