Hiya
A few of us travelled to Glasgow (by car-share and with one of the most climate-friendly vehicles, a Toyota Prius) to participate in Scotland's great Climate Change demo. It was great to see about 8,000 people gathered to march, chant, dance and wave. We felt buoyed up by the news just in this morning that Barack Obama will attend the Copenhagen climate summit this December during the period when it matters most, i.e. the second week. (source)
Here are two video impressions from Glasgow:
and
Let's hope this, and the much bigger demo down in London on the same day, will make an impression on the UK government, help the Scottish government push through its very ambitious legislation to mitigate climate change, and encourage everyone at COP15* to pull together for fair, binding, fast climate action.
*COP15 - The official title of the Copenhagen conference which takes place from 7-18 December 2009. It refers to the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). (source)
Showing posts with label Glasgow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glasgow. Show all posts
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Festive Glasgow
Glasgow last Monday evening, November 24, 2008, had a lovely surprise for me. The ice rink on George Square was opened with fanfare and music.I loved the fancy lights with bells looking as though they were really being pulled left and right -- can't get much tackier, but ...
A 75-year-old lady skater inaugurated the smooth ice before two figure skaters captivated their audience.
Too bad I had to catch a train so there was no time to strap on some skates and have a go. The crowd were impressive, standing patiently in line for admission to the ice.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Getting here, take one (here being Oban, Argyll, Scotland)
Hello again
In spite of having loads of work, and some of it very near its deadline, I want to catch up on putting some visual reminders on this blog of my journey eleven days ago that took me from Glasgow to Oban by bus.
It was a gloriously beautiful early evening -- see for yourselves:
By about 6:15 PM we were on our way out of Glasgow (the bus leaves Glasgow Buchanan bus station at 6PM). Glasgow is a fast-growing, rapidly developing city -- vibrant, metropolitan, global, Mediterranean, Asian – and very Scottish.
The ubiquitous wheeliebins or trash containers at the end of a stately area of Glasgow's "West End".
On the fringe of the city, a huge plot of land that must once have been a landfill site -- the stench was unbelievable, and the vast area was littered with plastic.
Twenty minutes later we were already well beyond the Erskine Bridge - an eye-catching cable-stayed structure that reminds me of the road bridge in Pereira, Colombia... -- hey, we live in a globalised world where structures resemble each other all over the world. See for yourself:
(Cable-stayed road bridge in the city of Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia, Sept. 2004 -- this bridge spans a heavily populated ravine and is actually more of a cable suspension bridge than Erskine Bridge.)
Back to my bus ride from Glasgow-Buchanan bus station to Oban: You know you're in Scotland when you see views like this, of Loch Lomond, for example:
and of Loch Long (I think):
... beautiful old humpbacked bridges like this one (there are quite a few of them dotted all over the place, all designed in the 19th century by the same engineer, Thomas Telford; the most famous example must be the Clachan Bridge a little south of Oban, aka The Bridge over the Atlantic -- see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clachan_Bridge).
... and views of Loch Fyne:
We stopped briefly at Inveraray. The driver had a smoke and a chat with a few locals. This gave me time to step out and take a picture of a stunningly beautiful white-blossomed Japanese cherry tree:
In spite of having loads of work, and some of it very near its deadline, I want to catch up on putting some visual reminders on this blog of my journey eleven days ago that took me from Glasgow to Oban by bus.
It was a gloriously beautiful early evening -- see for yourselves:
By about 6:15 PM we were on our way out of Glasgow (the bus leaves Glasgow Buchanan bus station at 6PM). Glasgow is a fast-growing, rapidly developing city -- vibrant, metropolitan, global, Mediterranean, Asian – and very Scottish.
The ubiquitous wheeliebins or trash containers at the end of a stately area of Glasgow's "West End".
On the fringe of the city, a huge plot of land that must once have been a landfill site -- the stench was unbelievable, and the vast area was littered with plastic.
Twenty minutes later we were already well beyond the Erskine Bridge - an eye-catching cable-stayed structure that reminds me of the road bridge in Pereira, Colombia... -- hey, we live in a globalised world where structures resemble each other all over the world. See for yourself:
(Cable-stayed road bridge in the city of Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia, Sept. 2004 -- this bridge spans a heavily populated ravine and is actually more of a cable suspension bridge than Erskine Bridge.)Back to my bus ride from Glasgow-Buchanan bus station to Oban: You know you're in Scotland when you see views like this, of Loch Lomond, for example:
and of Loch Long (I think):
... beautiful old humpbacked bridges like this one (there are quite a few of them dotted all over the place, all designed in the 19th century by the same engineer, Thomas Telford; the most famous example must be the Clachan Bridge a little south of Oban, aka The Bridge over the Atlantic -- see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clachan_Bridge).
... and views of Loch Fyne:
We stopped briefly at Inveraray. The driver had a smoke and a chat with a few locals. This gave me time to step out and take a picture of a stunningly beautiful white-blossomed Japanese cherry tree:
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