On Friday 20 September cities across the world went on strike to demonstrate against the environmental crisis that is devastating the world. This was an organised global event trying to highlight the impending doom of climate change at a grass roots level.
On midday on the steps of the town hall - known as the Corn Exchange - in Ipswich, my local town, a large number of youths stood in front of a large gathered crowd, and called out a need for change. In the end it is these youths who are inheriting this poison chalice of an environmentally dying planet. However it wasn't a demonstration just for the young as lots of people of different ages turned up - like myself.
These kinds of protests are always good fun, making an important statement whilst at the same time everyone enjoying themselves. There wasn't really anything special, no bands or anyone dressing up, which was a bit of a disappointment, as a photographer I always want something to snap. But it was an important event in itself as this sort of thing that doesn't happen in Ipswich.
As a fairly apathetic town as Ipswich is, when I heard about this demonstration I thought only five people would turn up, but happily I was wrong. There were hundreds of people present all packed into the town centre square as those on the steps of the town hall shouted out their demonstration to rounds of applause.
This is Sandy Martin a councillor for Ipswich Borough Council. He spoke at the demonstration, on the town hall steps to those who had congregated. He spoke well about how change needs to come more quickly than they are set out at the moment, about the need for innovation to halt climate change. It looked like he was really one of us - a politician that actually believes in helping the environment.
But soon the jeers started issuing out of the watching crowd. It was revealed that this politician supports a Northern Bypass for Ipswich - to provide more roads for extra lorries to supply Felixstowe Docks - and a subsequent town the size of Bury to be built along it. This will result in huge areas of Suffolk countryside being destroyed, just at a time when we're coming to realise we need to do something more creative with the world rather than concrete it over. In the end his act of environmental solidarity was just a front to get more votes.
Seeing so many people coming together was something powerful to witness. So much of what was being said and felt was what I have been hoping for years to become mainstream and now its finally happening. If everyone comes together like this then maybe we might just be able to save the world. At a time when the earth is being destroyed at such an insane level a real understanding of the human tragedy to such a large extent is really heartening.
Hundreds of people gathered in the town centre square
The difficult thing now is to get the message out to the people who don't normally come to these events, people who maybe don't think they are part of this movement. We need to get the message out that this world belongs to everybody and at the same time to make people realise that we are just caretakers, the world will continue after we leave, it just matters what state we leave it in.
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