This post is mainly pictures from today´s March in Bristol. You may wonder why I´m blogging them here, as this is a blog about Being-PALL (Plastic A Lot Less) what´s plastics gotta do with Climate Change? Well, quite a lot it happens…. I´ll talk a bit about that below.
Today´s March was incredible. The weather was utterly shit. I mean, it was terrible! Blowing a gale and pissing down with rain, and cold… but that didn´t stop 1000s (not sure of official figure yet, but there were impressive amounts of people there!) coming out to march. I was there, first with a banner and I got interviewed by local radio, if I find it I´ll share it, and then as the rained calmed I got my camera out to capture some of the spirit. (if you click on a photo you can view as a gallery).
What an incredible turn out! This is just Bristol, people today have marched in their 1000s the world over today.
So, the plastic connection….
Project Aware in this post say, “Plastic in Oceans: More Damaging that Climate Change.”
That of course can be argued, I´m not here to argue which is more damaging, hopefully we can agree, both are damaging to our world, and hence to us.
I´m going to take some quotes from Anna Cummins in this 5 Gyres post talking about Robert Swan, who holds his place in history aside Amandson, Scott and Shakelton with the title “First person to walk unassisted to both poles.” He knows more than me on the subject, lets face it! And Cummins has chatted to him first hand. In the post she says:
But what does plastic pollution have to do with climate change? They both have their root in fossil fuels.
The fantastic post, I urge you to read it here concludes with….
Your carbon footprint and your plastic footprint are not mutually exclusive. When I stood with Robert Swan on the Antarctic Peninsula we talked about climate change and pollution. He said, “It (took) 8 years for my team to remove 1500 tons of rubbish from Antarctica, but we had to do it,” adding, “you can’t separate the two. It’s the same fight.”
This is another reason I´m posting this here, in the hope that people who care enough to come out and March about Climate Change in the pouring rain and gale force winds (did I mention the crap weather?!) may stumble across my blog, and hopefully give them some tips and ideas to PALL...
I´m so inspired in the turn out across the world today. When the guy on the radio interviewed me, he asked why I´d come. I said, and I meant it, two of the reasons are my baby nieces. I want them to grown up in a world where there are still wild and amazing animals. I want to be able to tell them I was there taking part and doing something positive for their future. I NEVER thought I´d hear myself saying “I´m doing it for the children” line. They are not my only reasons of course, I´m still doing it for the animals, but those new little people in my life are giving me an extra push. Knowing these animals could be gone by the time they´re my age is a sobering thought. Not to mention all the other impacts of climate change… Everyone marching across the world wants a habitable planet for the little people´s in their lives, as do most people marching or not, don´t they?
Today I feel we´re one step closer to achieving that, people care, we´re coming on the streets and social media together… We shall see what happens at the Climate Summit in Paris tomorrow….
Remember, Every Refusal Adds Up!
Being-PALL 