In late October, I spotted a hand-crafted fabric sign attached to a lamppost. Stitched onto the cloth, in urgent red capitals juxtaposing the soft floral patterns, was the following - 'COP 26, VIGIL FOR THE EARTH'. This piqued my interest, and so on one golden morning, I headed to Cheltenham's Promenade.
I was greeted by some lovely women who were very welcoming. I sat down on a little camping chair to converse. They were Miriam Frings and Anne Knight-Elliott, who were very happy to answer my questions. To the side of us was a large painted tapestry, which has its own significance I will delve into later.
Upon asking why they were there at the vigil, Anne said, "COP-26 is on and we want to bring peoples' attention to that, in a quiet way. We also want to show our respect for the earth, and for those people at the event who are trying to make some very difficult decisions." Miriam added that they "would like to encourage the local council, who declared a climate emergency in February 2019, to act on that emergency." On this matter, she said that "progress has been slow to say the least."
So how did they think holding a vigil could support the climate crisis? Is encouraging their local council the main thing they wish to achieve?
"I felt we had to do something rather than nothing, 'cause doing nothing we didn't feel was an option."
"We’re inviting the people of Cheltenham to leave a message for the council [on the tapestry], their dreams, their hopes, their fears, suggestions", Miriam said, "and it's giving people, we hope, a bit of focus - rather than sitting at home, shouting at the television or despairing. Maybe people feel they’d love to be in Glasgow and be part of the protest, but they can’t be there. So we’re just doing something small and local. I felt we had to do something rather than nothing, 'cause doing nothing we didn’t feel was an option." The large tapestry in question had some suggestions already sewn onto it, which Miriam told me would be presented to the council, hopefully filled with all the ideas people have to help the climate.
"We’re trying to empower people because it’s so easy to feel absolutely hopeless," Anne added, "so we’ve got some cards with some small suggestions if people aren’t sure what they can do, to try and stress that you may think it’s only you, but if everybody, say for instance, turns out their lights in the rooms they’re not using, that could be [a great number] of people in Gloucestershire. So just doing something small can actually make a big difference if everybody does it."
Speaking about the event COP-26 as a whole, Miriam said: "I think there's a lot of brinkmanship going on, everybody knows what the problem is and that [they] have to do something, but they're waiting for somebody else to make that step. So it’ll take a bold and brave leader to step out in front of the crowd and say, this is what we’re going to do, because it’s the right thing to do. And hopefully other people [will] fall in line or step alongside… everybody’s looking after their own narrow interests, but this problem affects us all."
Seeing that Sir David Attenborough made his presence at the event, I asked if he might help people rally for a good cause. Anne said, "yes, because he’s very measured and respected, and what he says is based on the truth. And I think that’s something for me, I’d like to see the government actually telling people the truth [since] it’s very frightening. They [could] tell them the truth and say, 'this is how we can all go forward together', giving some positive steps. A lot of people really don’t know the facts."
I asked if they had one question for the politicians there, what would it be? "Tell the truth, and take a lead, show us and let us all be in it together and do something," Anne said. Miriam added, "act as if it's an emergency. You can do it in a pandemic, the country shut down in the pandemic - desperate diseases need desperate measures. And we need desperate measures."
Our interview had concluded but we kept in contact online. I was given some suggestion cards and a fabric footprint upon which I could write my own ideas for helping our climate. I knew I wanted to follow up on how the vigil went for Miriam and Anne, and so I wrote a second story on this blog.
Comments