Red Rebels, the chilling face of Extinction Rebellion, stepped over bodies strewn across the pavement as they walked through Forres.
As part of a protest held by Extinction Rebellion, the deathly white figures with chalk-white faces and draped in red, members of the public played dead in front of the Tolbooth to highlight the mass extinction of species across the globe that are coming as a result of global warming.
Earlier today, concerned members of the public also gathered at Findhorn village pier to cycle along the coast of Findhorn Bay which is predicted to flood as a result of climate change.
Both protests were part of a Global Climate Strike where people are coming together across the world to demand an end to the age of fossil fuels, a reversal of ecological destruction, and climate justice for everyone.
Mass die-in
Protesters, dressed in blue to represent the sea, staged the mass die-in as the Red Rebels walked among them and arose to sing songs of support for climate change.
At 1.30pm the rebels led a line of protesters to the office of Douglas Ross, parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party. where rebel leader Andrew Heath delivered a poignant statement to an audience of onlookers who had gathered on both sides of the road.
Under the banner ‘What’s your plan?’ they delivered a letter to Mr Ross demanding to know how the Government will carry out its responsibilities to protect the people of Moray and the UK in today’s climate emergency.
A recent study found 300 million people worldwide are now living on land without adequate sea defences that is likely to flood at least once a year by mid-century, and that assumes governments manage to make sharp cuts in emissions, which with current targets will not happen.
The research by Climate Central, a US-based, non-profit climate science and news organisation, highlights the scale of the upheaval projected to unfold as global heating threatens some of the world’s most highly-populated regions. Their map of the Moray Firth coastline reveals significant areas at high risk of flooding in 2050, particularly along Findhorn Bay and Kinloss.
Naturalist and TV presenter Sir David Attenborough has declared: “We are facing a human-made disaster on a global scale.”
‘Worried and fearful’
Andrew Heath of Forres branch of Extinction Rebellion said: “People are increasingly worried and fearful, and want to see radical Government policy change and action, not more calls to individual habit change and bland statements that we are all doing our bit.
“We call on Douglas Ross, our representative in Parliament, for protection; to call public meetings throughout Moray and explain, with expert back-up, the rigorous science of climate breakdown.
“We further call on him to justify the Government’s 2050 target for a net-zero carbon economy when the United Nations Scientists say this gives the Earth only a 50:50 chance of avoiding the dangerous catastrophe of global heating exceeding 1.5 degrees.
“If our children were sick, would we delay the treatment, given we know what the problem is and how to solve it? Would we delay, knowing we still just have time, but in a few years the illness may well be terminal?”
