Cop26: Thousands of young activists march into Glasgow – day five live | Environment

Musicians and orchestras around the globe have been playing one of the most recognisable compositions, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, this week.

But there’s a catch. The music has been altered by a team of scientists and composers to include the devastating impact of the climate crisis.

The adaptation, titled, The [uncertain] Four Seasons, re-writes the score to account for the intense storms, degraded lands, bare forests and rising seas that will occur by 2050 without action being taken by world leaders.

“In 1725, Vivaldi created a masterpiece, but since then, the world he depicted has drastically changed,” said Tim Devine, Executive Innovation Director, AKQA.

“Vivaldi’s work has been rescored for every city in the world. Every variation is different. Each one jarringly altered from the harmony of Vivaldi’s original.”

It’s chilling to listen to. Here is one version, by the Slovenian National Youth Orchestra.

Youth climate activists are currently speaking in central Glasgow. Several of them will be talking at a special Guardian event later this month.

Details are here:

Cop26: young activists talk to Franny Armstrong

Join Franny Armstrong in a special livestreamed event with young activists fighting the climate emergency around the world.

On Wednesday 10 November 2021, 8pm GMT| 9pm CET | 12pm PST | 3pm EST

Book tickets here

Back at the “Fridays For Futures” youth protest, someone has made a good point about how loving Irn-Bru is all well and good until we can’t make it anymore because we destroyed the planet.

BREAKING: The world loves Irn-Bru.

Well, that’s admittedly not completely accurate. In fact, German delegate Michael Buechl said the “first sip was rather shocking” and he won’t drink it outside Scotland.

But the rust-coloured drink – which combos 32 flavours – has proved exceedingly popular among delegates to Cop26, according to my colleagues Patrick Greenfield and Libby Brooks.

Dreli Solomon, a negotiator from Vanuatu, said he is hooked. And the Zimbabwean presidential spokesperson was reported to have emerged from a Glasgow Costco with trolleys full of cans on Monday.

(Disclaimer: no Pepsi or Coke is available in the conference centre due to a sponsorship deal)

Extinction Rebellion has just messaged us to say they put up a banner in the London borough of Wandsworth this morning in response to an opinion piece published yesterday on climate depression.

Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist, wrote in the Guardian to warn of “a growing epidemic of serious climate depression among young people”.

The piece cited a survey that found 77% of people aged 16-25 feel “the future is frightening”, 68% feel sad, and 63% feel anxious. 39% feel “hesitant to have children”.

See the banner below:

Meanwhile, in the Pacific:

Simon Kofe, the foreign minister of Tuvalu, is certainly getting the point across.

His country, midway between Hawaii and Australia, is the fourth-smallest nation in the world and home to just 11,000 people.

But it is shrinking. Already, two of Tuvalu’s nine islands are on the verge of going under, the government says, swallowed by sea-rise and coastal erosion.

Read more about it here:

Several thousand protesters are marching through Glasgow to coincide with Youth and Public Empowerment Day at Cop26. Kids are on the streets with their parents, classmates and teachers demanding world leaders do more to stop polluters and save the planet from catastrophic rising temperatures.

Unfortunately, those inside the Cop making decisions about their future won’t have heard a single slogan as they could not get close to the conference halls.

We’re expecting a much much bigger crowd tomorrow for the global day of action for climate justice, with protests expected in 200 or so cities around the world.

Greta Thunberg is going to be joining thousands at today’s Youth March that will head into central Glasgow shortly.

Expect some drama. So far this week, the 18-year-old climate activist has already sung that world leaders and big business should shove their “climate crisis up your arse” and accused attendees of “greenwashing”.

Oliver Holmes here, taking over the liveblog from Chris Michael.

If you are at Cop26, or watching from afar, you can contact me with information or suggestions at [email protected], or @olireports.

My most urgent question for the hivemind of liveblog readers is how on earth did activists lug a FOUR-TONNE block of glacier ice from Greenland to Cop26?