COP 26

[kylie122]

What do you think will change

@kylie122

What do you think will change

Life for anyone who lives in or around Glasgow for at least the next two weeks. Road closures, a large part of the city blocked off, police everywhere, two major protests in the city centre next weekend, terror threats and disruption caused by Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion.

Really looking forward to it.

Lots promises and little action. It’s COP 26 they had 25 previous COPS with everyone to make changes. It’s going take a lot more flooding and fires before the public make it clear they have take action via the ballet box.
We can all recycle till cows come home but it make tiny difference compared to companies and power industries.

Think this from Reddit covers it.
Be the change you want to see.

Yes. Electric cars, recycling and reducing plastic isn't going to cut it.

There will be an undertaking for the west to pay the thirdworlds debts with no strings.
The UK will probably be the only one to implement.
We as taxpayers will be ones who pay.

Homophobic, mysoginistic, undemocratic regimes will run hands in glee.

Tarquin and Lucrecia will have a topping time at the protests as Daddie will pay any fines.

Wee Jimmy will working class labourer will get to chib some wee nyaff who tries to delay him on his way to the building site.

Woe betide any of those Insulate dicks if I can't get to where I'm going...

What has really annoyed me about it is that there is a strong group of experienced volunteers in Glasgow in the wake of the commonwealth games. I'm a member of the group set up after the games for volunteers to meet and share volunteering opportunities.

Very very few of them were selected for volunteering roles for cop26 despite the majority of us applying.

Now we're inundated with requests from volunteers who are coming from all over the world looking for places to go and see, information about Glasgow and looking for accommodation.

It seems crazy when the conference is about reducing carbon emissions that so many are flying up to volunteer. When there's such huge pressure on accommodation and there are locals who are willing to volunteer and represent Glasgow with good local knowledge.

A lot of do as we say and not as we do

My Dd's leisure activities.
(She's going to Edinburgh next weekend to get away from it)

Thousands of protesters from "all over the world". Are they all cycling there?

My eyes are in danger of rolling out of the back of my head. And what audience does BJ have in mind with his cringeworthy football analogies?

Something has to change. I hope that the urgency of the situation and the responsibility to future generations will not be lost on the delegates and that the tough decisions that need to be made will be made even if they are unpopular with ‘the people’.

Nothing.
They'll make wanky promises but nothing will ever be done.
See also local councils.

It's a crucial conference. We don't have long before climate change is irreversible (an estimated nine years), so I really hope that this meeting is the one where countries will commit to solid plans that will keep global warming below 1.5C. At the moment, countries are not even meeting the targets set out in the Paris Agreement, so we are currently heading for a world that is 2.7C hotter. Catastrophic.

This conference has been called our last hope to avoid the climate crisis.

Toffeewhirl

Quite. Scary stuff. Scary that our future is held in the hands of a few people with their own agendas.

@Suspiciousmind20

Toffeewhirl

Quite. Scary stuff. Scary that our future is held in the hands of a few people with their own agendas.

Agreed.

It's a cult meeting. All the cult members are there. The high priests/priestesses will be there (with a few exceptions) The anointed ones will speak and the followers will listen. Tithes will be demanded. Hellfire and brimstone will be expanded and threatened. Sacrifices will be offered.

But it's probably safe to drink what's on offer.

@Rainbowshit

What has really annoyed me about it is that there is a strong group of experienced volunteers in Glasgow in the wake of the commonwealth games. I'm a member of the group set up after the games for volunteers to meet and share volunteering opportunities.

Very very few of them were selected for volunteering roles for cop26 despite the majority of us applying.

Now we're inundated with requests from volunteers who are coming from all over the world looking for places to go and see, information about Glasgow and looking for accommodation.

It seems crazy when the conference is about reducing carbon emissions that so many are flying up to volunteer. When there's such huge pressure on accommodation and there are locals who are willing to volunteer and represent Glasgow with good local knowledge.

Totally agree with you, @Rainbowshit and I am one of these people! Grew up in Edinburgh, have lived in Glasgow all my adult life. Volunteered in the press team for the Commonwealth Games in 2014, again at the Europeans in 2018 when my job was shepherding journalists/TV crews around and sharing info about transport routes, restaurants, and how to get to Loch Lomond and Edinburgh Castle.

I applied again for Cop26, as per usual you're asked to select what roles you wish to be considered for, I think I put down press / media (as I'd done it before) and delegate information in the SECC. Got through the first few stages and was offered... meet and greet at the airport. No thanks.

I saw volunteers interviewed on the TV this week, one was very clearly a local Weegie, the other two were climate activist student types, one from the south east of England, the other from overseas. They can most definitely manage the friendly, smiling face vibe. How they'd cope with being asked the best public transport route to Loch Lomond, what top 3 things to see in Edinburgh on a day trip or which restaurant they should book near Byres Road for a quick lunch, they'd be totally lost.

Biden's not going to be popping into the Ubiquitous Chip for lunch. But all the other delegates deserve volunteers who know the city. It would be like me volunteering to guide people around Birmingham for the 2022 Games. Not. A. Clue.

Pollution in Glasgow will temporarily increase as leaders and their staff, who are flying in presumably, are ferried around by car.

Many of the world leaders will not be staying in the city because of the security risk. The most prominent are staying quite some distance away in country hotels which are easier to completely lock down with security staff, and will be helicoptered into Glasgow.

On one hand, it's money which those hotels/country clubs wouldn't have had otherwise at the beginning of November and great for the economy. But it's not quite in the spirit of the thing, is it.

Ah yes, Cameron House.
Ffs, the road there is bad enough for accidents without this.
Gym members can't use it, they just pay the extortionate fees but y'know VIPs.
I'm not even that near Glasgow for something like this and yet it's affecting us here.

Further than that even @ISpyCobraKai. If you're looking at somewhere isolated and easy to secure you'd be booking Gleneagles, Mar Hall, some big isolated country house in Ayrshire/Perthshire. 30 mins in a helicopter into Glasgow.

And I've just read that Extinction Rebellion have set up camp in Pollok Park.

It's ridiculous.

Unbelievable the amount of visitors coming to Glasgow , while we are still in a pandemic . Hopefully it will make people more aware of small things they can do personally to help , but don’t get me started on all the protestors that will be here , don’t they have a job to go to !!!

I'm not unsympathetic to the issues. We recycle, watch our carbon footprint, etc. But this was the perfect opportunity to show that they didn't all need to fly into the one place from around the world. The environmental cost of this and the health cost during a pandemic is impossible to justify. Add on the public sector workers strikes, the duty solicitor's strike, the fact that traffic is going to be stagnant for hours greatly increasing pollution in Glasgow ... it doesn't make any sense.