Women lead vigil outside Holyrood

Women from Stirling and Clackmannanshire were among those leading a 24-hour ”drop-in”vigil for climate justice outside the Scottish Parliament.

The vigil took place ahead of a rally on International Womens’Day (March 8) last week.

Organised by the Womens’Climate Strike, a grassroots organisation calling for women and FINT (Female, intersex, Non-binary, Trans) people across the globe to set up a regular Climate Strike in their local area – be that a city, town, village, or neighbourhood – to demand immediate action on the climate catastrophe.

Events took place over the world to protest the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women.

Extinction Rebellion Stirling spokesperson Mandy Cairns said:“The UN estimates that 80 per cent of people displaced by climate change are women and girls. Heat waves, droughts, floods, pandemics and extreme storms impact women hardest: they struggle to survive and recover afterwards because they are more likely to live in poverty and are raising children.

“Women have less access to education and basic rights and face systematic violence that escalates during instability and conflict.”

Mandy added:“Our home is being destroyed and we cannot leave it to others in power to hold those profiteering from its destruction to account because it’s quite clear that they are not doing that and seem to have no intention of doing that.

“We need to act together now to protect nature and ourselves. Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly and we have only a few years left to take the necessary action. Delays in transitioning away from fossil fuels has cost us precious time and left us at the mercy of those who control supplies, as we now see in the Ukraine“

Ida Caspary from Stirling University Environmental Enterprises, said:“It is crucial to bring non-males into leadership roles to address climate chaos.”

At the Scottish event on International Women’s Day itself, a“graveyard” commemorated the lives of murdered female environmentalists from around the world, a living Lady Of Justice golden statue was present throughout the day and there was a large Tree of Hope for members of the public and MSPs to pin messages of hope for the future to.

Some of the remaining panels from the Stitches For Survival movement for COP26 were also be on display and there were poetry, samba drums among other activities .