The Wave: Have we made a difference?

Dec. 8 by Rebekah Douglas (3)

Saturday saw us Brits from all over the country join together to make an outrageously blue statement against climate change.

Green societies and eco friendly warriors gathered up to approximately 50,000 protestors in the capital city for the long awaited Wave. All marchers had the same general hope to speak to those in power and have their say on what the outcome of the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen should be.

Organisations from the West Midlands helped to build up the numbers making it the biggest UK climate change march ever. Local organisations included Birmingham Friends of the earth, Oxfam Midland group, The Diocese of Birmingham and Northfield eco centre, who Birmingham Recycled travelled with.

MP Ed Miliband (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change) was present during the march and took part in private climate talks after the big ‘Wave’ in Westminster at 3 pm.

The event certainly grabbed the attention of on lookers and created a huge racket throughout London with roads boarded off for us to walk our miles. However I feel it is worth asking the vital question that we are now left with. What difference did the Wave make?

Dedicated Oxfam activist Charli Livingstone took saving the earth to the extreme by cycling from Birmingham to London just to attend the event. Charli said:

“I cycled to London because I care passionately about the impact that climate change is having right now on the world’s poorest people.

I even got to meet the Prime Minister and tell him why I decided to attend The Wave.

I believe that we needed to show this type of public support. It sent the UK Government a very clear message that we are watching and making sure that they put pressure on the European Union for a strong deal in Copenhagen.”

Ian Sullivan, an online campaigner at Oxfam, spoke of the Wave saying:

“For me, this is about justice.

There’s plenty more campaigning to do before and after Copenhagen.

We can, we must, keep the pressure on our representatives in Copenhagen over the next couple of weeks, but as the tension around the debating table rises, Gordon Brown and others would do well to heed the words of some of the youngest voices in The Wave.”

It appears the event has given a positive nudge to Gordon Brown as he is now ‘urging world leaders to give their promises at Copenhagen the full weight of international law within six months.’

The prime minister himself wrote an article for the Guardian saying: “Over the next two weeks we have the chance to come together, as a truly global community, to take the first decisive action needed to change its course.”

Ruth Davis from RSPB (Royal society of the protection of Birds) had clear idea of what she wanted the outcome of the protest to be during her public speech before the march.

She said: “Today were sending our leaders out there to demand a binding ambitious fair global deal but tomorrow and next year when those leaders come home its time for us to hold them to account for every single ton of carbon that they put in the atmosphere. “We will never be silenced, we will never go away.”

There is a clear determination for leaders and organisations to make a difference and come out on top after the Copenhagen Conference. It allows us to consider what the Wave achieved, which I would argue was a strong message to leaders about what this earth and the rest of the world needs and what we need to do to provide this. There are no ends to the dedication that came from the huge crowd, which is sure to carry on through years to come.

Check back on Birmingham Recycled for photos and Podcast Episode 9 from The Wave.