About time…

As the 26th COP convened - we noticed the treaty* that established the Conference of the Parties (COP) came into effect in the same year as Pollok Free State declared independence in Aug 1994 - over four years before a Scottish parliament.

Much has taken place in the decades since - habitats destroyed, babies born and grown to adult hood, species lost forever - and way too little has changed. For many it is only worse.

About place…

As the 26th COP sprawled a few blocks away from us here in Govan, we set out to declare our independence, our interdependence and radical dependence.

We no longer find it reasonable to put our faith elsewhere. There is no one coming. There is only us. And for us that means each other in Greater Govan on Glasgow’s South Side.

We, who are coming to judge the present situation, see the common cause that connects those standing in food bank queues here, or living alone unsure whether to suffer the cold or hunger with those dispossessed of territories in communities flung into conflict in every part of the world, while webs spin wide to win our attention with triviality or misinformation. We see the connecting threads between our waterlogged concrete and tarmac reality here and lives and landscapes destroyed and marked, and being marked as we write this, by wildfires, winds, waters and other far from natural causes.

We thank the ‘status quo’, vested interests and bankrupt worldviews and institutions for delivering us this reality. We now see. We now reclaim responsibility for the contested territories of our collective futures.