A Cry for Planet Earth

Written after returning from a protest march in Leeds to coincide with the COP30 Sustainability talks in Belem, Brazil.

-o-O-o-

It felt good to shout at the top of my voice for an hour as we paraded through the drizzle, especially since I  believed in the slogans. How much impact it had on the Leeds City Centre shopping population, I don’t know. Some despairingly struggled to squeeze their way through to the shops on the other side of our parade without being squashed.

Others stood to take photos of us. I find that rallies, protest marches, whatever they’re called, are very colourful spectacles at which the participants are good-humoured and friendly, united by a common cause.

You couldn’t fail to notice the ghostly Red Brigade, which sprung out of the Extinction Rebellion movement after it ceased its acts of ‘disobedience’.

In its own words, the brigade symbolises the common blood we share with all species, that unifies us and makes us one. We are unity and we empathise with our surroundings, we are forgiving. We are sympathetic and humble, compassionate and understanding. We divert, distract, delight and inspire the people who watch us.’

After completing our march, we listened to a series of speeches. We heard how a plan to expand Leeds Bradford Airport had been successfully opposed, but that the fight continues; LBA’s owners have, instead, applied to operate more night flights.

Next, three speakers explained their opposition to the huge wood-pellet burning power station at Drax. This purports to be carbon neutral, as it uses byproduct from logging for forest products in Canada and the USA. Fact-checkers have, we were told, revealed that a proportion of the feedstock is from virgin trees, leaving the communities nearby with a degraded landscape and polluted air.  It made me want to look into the matter, as Drax receives massive public subsidies.

The programme organisers of COP30, and the many protesters who’ve stormed the conference building in Belem, are concerned to protect the rainforests.

Once again, trees! To support this theme, we were entertained by the DiscObedience Dancers, who dressed as trees with the exception of one (pictured left) who played the role of chainsaw executioner.

Other speakers (e.g., from the TUC) emphasised that the evils of injustice and inequality are intertwined with the Climate crisis. That’s why the effects of ecosystem breakdown are experienced most acutely by those who have done the least to cause them.

-o-O-o-

The first speaker was one of the most poignant. Rev John Swales MBE explained how he used to warn his listeners that the world must act now to avoid a climate catastrophe. Today he warns that we must act to prevent the inevitable catastrophe from becoming worse. Despite this pessimistic outlook he’s committed to engaging with both climate deniers (including, sadly, some prominent UK Christians) and climate victims, with Christian compassion. God hasn’t stopped caring for our planet, neither must we. Indeed, God seeks to work out his redemptive purposes as fully as ever.  

That’s why I was glad to take part. And I was delighted that the event was covered, sympathetically and in detail, by ITV’s local Calendar News.