Sandra Burt's report on the Peoples Climate March

People’s Climate March, Edinburgh

Sunday 21st September 2014

I arranged to take part in the People’s Climate March with some friends I’d made whilst volunteering as a Zero Waste Scotland Recycling Ambassador at the Commonwealth Games earlier in the year.  It’s good to unexpectedly find like-minded people and share information about events, and I found out about this march through these new friends.  It was ironic that the weather was glorious – a warm and sunny day in late September.  The sunshine helped bring out the crowds but underlined the reason we were there.  It’s difficult to estimate numbers but there were possibly around 5000 people in Edinburgh at the march.

The crowds assembled at Mound and we met this man who told us about the shofar - a ram’s horn blown at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year festival at the end of September which precedes Yom Kippur.  The shofar is also sounded as a call to action and so was fitting to be heard at the People’s Climate March. 

The homemade banners were impressive and an area had been set aside at the rallying point to create personal climate change messages.  Posters from events at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival had been recycled into banners and flags.  I liked the fact that this activity had been incorporated into the festivity of the day.

There were a few speakers before we set off, and we were told that because so many more people than expected had turned up, the police had been asked to help steward the march.  Some lanes on the roads also had to be closed.  We walked along Princes Street, over North Bridge, up the High Street and back down to the Mound.

I bumped into some friends on North Bridge - John Fitzgerald and Mary Church from Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Back at the Mound there were more speakers and some community singing to finish off the rally.