MP office vigil goes yellow for campaign

PEOPLE who gather each Friday at a vigil to ask Loughborough MP Jane Hunt and the government to take the climate emergency seriously got dressed up in yellow as part of a national campaign known as Canary Craftivism.

Fifteen people gathered outside the MP’s office on Pinfold Gate on Friday dressed in yellow and holding yellow banners. Ahead of COP26, a global climate change conference hosted in Glasgow this November, the group were asking for bold action from the UK government to ensure we take the climate crisis seriously enough.

In a letter to Jane Hunt they said: “We are incredibly worried about the effects scientists warn us of global warming for our local community and for future generations. We have gathered today, wearing yellow to symbolise canaries.

“Canaries were used to accompany coal miners to give warning signals when the air was too toxic to work in and miners often called their canary partners ‘colleagues’ and cared so much for their little buddies that they wanted to protect them from harm, sometimes more than themselves.

“We ask you to encourage Alok Sharma and Boris Johnson to be bold pioneering hosts of the UN Climate Conference for world leaders at such a historic and decisive year.

“Everyone of us, who choose to show up each week, are simply worried about our environment.”

In the lead up to COP26 people all over the UK are crafting canaries and sending them to their MPs with letters asking for urgent action.