Bath: MP greets Climate Walkers

YCCN walkers at Nexus Methodist church

Despite intense heat, walkers from the Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN) were only 20 minutes late when they strode up to Bath's Nexus Methodist church yesterday. Their starting point, that morning, had been Keynsham. Gathered to welcome them to Bath were representatives of most local Church denominations, Roman Catholics included.

Bath MP Wera Hobhouse said, in a message to the event: "I am so sorry not to be with you in person today. Please know that you have my full support and my admiration for your commitment to tackling climate change. I share your passion for preserving our planet and hope to be able to meet with you virtually after the Parliamentary summer recess."

Sunday's event was a tiny stage in a relay, a journey of around 1,000 miles over five months. That relay began outside the G7 Summit, Carbis Bay, Cornwall, on 14th June. That relay closes at the "COP26" Climate Summit of world leaders in Glasgow in November.

The YCCN walkers aim to highlight the effects of climate change on the world's poorest, and to pray for climate justice as they go. The walkers are accompanied by a two-metre-long boat symbolising their campaign message: "We are all in the same storm, but not in the same boat". The reality is that the most vulnerable people and places are the worst affected by climate change. The boat's sails are made from material from countries threatened by inundation as sea levels rise.

YCCN co-founder Rachel Mander says: "The boat is a particularly pertinent symbol, because about ten per cent of the world's population, or 770 million people, today, live on land less than five metres above the high-tide line. All of the worst effects of the climate crisis are preventable by decisive action from the global community; it's what makes our inaction so awful."
The boat's hull is made from a coffin, to make it easier to carry.

LINKS

Young Christian Climate Network - www.yccn.uk/

Nexus Methodist Church - www.nexusbath.org.uk

G7, June 2021: What the British Government says: 2021 G7 Summit - UK Presidency - www.g7uk.org

COP26, November 2021: What the British Government says: COP26 - GOV.UK - www.gov.uk