London People's Climate March Demands Theresa May Take Climate Change Seriously

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The streets of London were awash with a jumble of giant red letters today, as they made their way to Westminster Bridge to send a very important message to two of the worldโ€™s most powerfulย leaders.

As hundreds of people weaved their way carefully through crowds of tourists, onlookers could only attempt to work out what the letters might possibly mean. After a spontaneous eruption of chanting โ€“ which made the bunch seem like a group several times its size โ€“ the letters soon assembled in their rightful order so that even those far down the Southbank could not mistake theirย message.

Raised defiantly in the air, the letters read: โ€œTRUMP AND MAY CLIMATE DISASTER.โ€

Around 300 people came together today as part of a protest organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change, which was held in solidarity with the Peopleโ€™s Climate March in Washington and 375 similar eventsย worldwide.

Protesters from all over the country came out to challenge Theresa Mayโ€™s government about its climate record ahead of Britainโ€™s 2017 general election, amid fears that they are following the Trump administration down a slipperyย slope.

One of the eventโ€™s organisers, Claire James, wanted todayโ€™s event to highlight that climate accountability extends not only to caricature figures like Donald Trump, but to representatives in the UK asย well.

โ€œWeโ€™ve got this Climate Change Act, which in theory is a really great framework for climate change action, but a lot of it feels like itโ€™s been chipped away in recent years,โ€ sheย said.

โ€œWe feel like weโ€™re in a car heading towards a cliff at speed and we donโ€™t know whether weโ€™re going to go over or not, but Iโ€™m pretty sure we need to be pressing the brake and not theย accelerator.โ€


Photo: Lauraย McKenna

Although more modest in size, todayโ€™s event sought to carry through some of the momentum of last weekโ€™s Science March, which saw thousands of protesters turn up in London to stand up for funding across the sector and policies informed by scientificย evidence.

Todayโ€™s Peopleโ€™s Climate March in the US was organised in resistance to the Trump administrationโ€™s plans to dismantle climate change progress. It remains uncertain whether the US will honour its commitment to the Paris Agreement, which could come as a huge blow to the internationally recognisedย accord.

Just yesterday, only hours before todayโ€™s planned protest, pages about climate science were also removed from the Environmental Protection Agencyโ€™sย website.

Veteran campaigner and retired teacher Diane Edwards, who travelled down to Westminster from the Wirral to be at todayโ€™s protest, doesnโ€™t think that Trump and May are taking the issueย seriously.

โ€œIt horrifies me that weโ€™re trailing America at the moment,โ€ she said. โ€œIn Britain, we could be doing so much more. Weโ€™ve slashed the subsidies for solar and wind. Huge opportunities are being lostย here.โ€

Edwards thinks that younger generations will be the ones to pay the price if effective measures arenโ€™t taken soon, something that 25-year-old corporate communications worker Helen Sonjen agreedย with.

Sonjen said: โ€œIโ€™m concerned that the more complacent we get โ€“ the more people donโ€™t think anythingโ€™s going to change โ€“ the more itโ€™s going to affect youngย people.โ€

With the snap election looming, fears are mounting that a victory for the Conservatives could give Theresa May a mandate for a hard Brexit, which could come with devastating consequences for environmental regulation that is currently protected by the EU.

โ€œSo many of the voters are pensioners who arenโ€™t going to see the effects of climate change,โ€ Sonjen said. She remains hopeful that Donald Trumpโ€™s recent election will be enough to shake young people intoย action.

Lorraine Inglis from Frack Off London, who was just one of the speakers who gave an impassioned speech at todayโ€™s gathering, said that she is โ€œhorrifiedโ€ about the upcoming general election and delayed Brexit negotiations. In her view, it is not just environmental regulations that people should be concerned about, but also the changes that could be made if the Human Rights Act isย repealed.

โ€œIf they even changed our human rights and took away our power to protest โ€ฆ well, that’s what is actually keeping a lot of the fracking industry at bay,โ€ Inglisย said.

But she has faith that people have enough agency to force governments into action before it’s tooย late.

โ€œIf you look around and see what people are doing in the local communities, that always gives hope. Take it out of the Houses of Parliament and take it back into your localย community.โ€

By coming together today and hearing speakers who are organising solidarity events across the UK, Inglis hopes that those who turned up can find other ways to continue the fight for climateย action.

Until progress is made to invest in renewable energy and implement an effective climate change plan however, she says that the fightย continues.ย 

Photo: Jessicaย Cooperย 

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