Extinction Rebellion Glasgow to protest for urgent climate action after record UK temperatures
Extinction Rebellion Glasgow will conduct a die-in protest this Saturday (23 July 2022) at 11:00 at Buchanan Street, Glasgow to demand urgent climate action after the highest recorded temperatures in the UK.
Whilst people lie on the ground covered in white sheets, a sombre drum beat will echo through the busy shopping area. Shoppers will have the chance to stop to read the placards laid out on the ‘bodies’ with the ‘cause of death’ including 'Heat Stress - Death from temperature rising to over 40 degrees' and 'Famine - starvaton caused by crop failure'.
The action follows a week of the highest ever recorded temperatures in the UK, which the UN and climate scientists agree is due to human-made climate change. Dr Nikos Christidis, Climate attribution scientist at the Met Office commented this week: “We hoped we wouldn’t get to this situation but for the first time ever we are forecasting greater than 40°C in the UK”. [1] Experts at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have called the global heatwaves a “wake-up call” for climate change, and say these heatwaves are only going to increase in frequency and intensity as global temperatures rise. [2] Scotland saw the highest recorded temperature hit 35.1C (95.1F) in the Borders. It surpasses the previous record of 32.9C recorded in Greycrook in the Borders on 9 August 2003. [3]
Just 7 months after COP26 in Glasgow, it is clear that 2050 net zero targets and actions are failing to change the direction of travel towards an uninhabitable earth. The UK government is issuing new licences for oil and gas in spite of the International Energy Agency stating: ‘If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal, from now – from this year.
