NEXT Friday, schoolchildren on the Isle of Bute will go around marking a straight horizontal line on the walls of houses and buildings.
Before anyone accuses them of vandalism, they should consider this – the children are sending out a visual signal of their fear that Scotland’s islands are drowning, as global warming is causing rising sea levels, and the marks are calculated to show just how high they could reach in Scotland.
The National has already featured such a visual display – recently we reported the light installation at the Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre at Lochmaddy on North Uist, which displays how high sea levels are expected to rise.
Extinction Rebellion Bute is the latest local organisation of the global protest movement to demand action on climate crisis.
READ MORE: Climate emergency: Plans set out on how Scotland should respond
They say that next Friday’s protest on the Isle of Bute will attempt to send a message to the Westminster Government, and at the same time they are reaching out to inhabitants of all Scotland’s islands in the seas around the country.
Extinction Rebellion Bute said: “Recent sea flooding has brought home the potential impacts of sea level rise, which could be as high as two metres according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Increased occurrence and ferocity of storm events would seriously impact our islands, with one storm event in 2013 causing a storm surge of 6.03m along the coast of the UK.
“The predicted changes would make large swathes of the island and other coastal regions of the UK uninhabitable. Predictions of food-supply issues and storm events are also particularly relevant for an island that depends on regular life-line shipments.”
Local activist Dr Adrian Slater said: “As a Bute resident, I’m particularly concerned about the impact of rising sea levels, intense storms and collapse of the gulf stream, on our island.”
Islander Monica Brooks added: “I’ve been feeling increasingly upset and ashamed at the legacy we’re leaving our grandchildren.”
The National can reveal that it is not just adults on Bute who are concerned, hence the numbers joining next Friday’s school strike – the second such day of youth action across the world.
Students in the local school are also questioning why the government isn’t helping.
Shelly Pescod, mother of three children, said: “My eight-year-old son came home, upset after watching Blue Planet and couldn’t understand why these things were happening to animals.
“I was at a loss to explain to him. We have to protect all our children’s futures.”
READ MORE: Angus Robertson: Even big business is now sounding climate SOS
Nor will it just be children taking action next Friday. Adult Bute residents have decided to make a stand and have called on other coastal communities to join them.
They are holding what they call “a planned unconventional protest day” on Friday.
One of the organisers, PaulThomas said: “We’re going to have students giving presentations, a discussion post and music.
“It’s about gathering, trying to get a message to policy-makers and the community coming together to learn and plan what we can do locally. There is a lot of worry up here and we want to do what we can to effect change.”
With local SNP MP Brendan O’Hara planning to attend, hopes are high that the Island can garner publicity for the event and send a message to policy-makers.
The group said: “It’s clear that we all want and need change.”
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