Thousands of climate strikers take to the streets in Bristol City Centre

By Maggie Sawant, Students' Union Correspondent

Yesterday, Bristol was one of the hundreds of cities across the world that took part in the Global Climate Strike, where protesters walked out of their schools and workplaces to demand that their governments do more to combat climate change.

It is estimated that tens of thousands of protesters of all ages attended the march, which started in College Green.

The protesters then marched through the city centre, bringing traffic to a standstill. Coffins also lined the path in front of City Hall, arranged by strike supporters from the wildlife film industry, to mourn the extinction and near-extinction of thousands of animals.

The Global Climate Strike follows on from the School Strikes for Climate, started by teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg last year, which first took place in Bristol last February. The school strikes, which have taken place in hundreds of countries, are believed to have put increasing pressure on adults to walk out of their workplaces in protest against climate inaction on the part of national governments.

Lush, the cosmetics retailer, shut down all of its stores and operations, inviting its 5000 employees to support the climate strike. Bristol University also invited all of its staff to take half an hour off work today, between 12 and 12:30pm, as an expression of ‘solidarity’ with the protesters.

Dr Rui Ponte Costa, Lecturer in Computational Neuroscience and Machine Learning at the University, attended the march. He told Epigram that it ‘was wonderful to see all the young people protesting’. Bristol SU also encouraged its staff to support the protesters, giving them an hour off work in addition to their normal lunch hour.

After taking a circular route through the city centre, the march ended in College Green, where Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, gave a speech regarding both the Government and Bristol City Council’s approach to the climate crisis. ‘We are not seeing the solutions from national government that we need to see...We have not supported a way of living in Bristol that enables Bristolians to live in a way that lessens their CO2 output.’

He then spoke of Bristol City Council’s plans to develop housing in the city, known as the ‘Western Harbour’ development. The Council hopes to ensure the sustainability of the project, particularly by reducing car dependence.

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion (XR) and a former Bristol University student, also gave a speech. He told the crowd of his parents’ disapproval when he decided to take a break from his studies to support XR.

‘At University, I was living two lives, to learn modern languages and travel the world, as well as to understand that we are living in an emergency. And those two things don’t work together, so I decided to drop out of my studies and start the rebellion.’

‘We are in a World-War-Two-like situation, we need to pull up our sleeves and get to it, we need to be digging up gardens and growing our own vegetables.’

More protests are due to take place in the city next month, and they are not expected to stop until the Government changes its climate agenda.

Featured image credit: Epigram / Topaz Maitland

Did you attend? What was your experience of the Climate Strike?