Students Meet Minister for Children and Young People
Climate Surgery with Clare Haughey MSP
Senior school pupils from four schools in Clare Haughey MSP’s constituency met with her in a video call as part of The Moment on October 29th 2021. It was an inspiring conversation, with each high school contributing fantastic calls to action within their school and local community. As Clare stated at the start of the session, “we must listen to the voices of our future population and future leaders, and that’s you!”
The students’ calls to action focused on local, sustainable ways to tackle the climate emergency, as well as their creative ideas to be taken seriously by adults. They called on Clare Haughey and other MSPs to take forward the following demands:
Cathkin High School
“There is a lack of playparks in the area, and those that exist are dated. The basketball court is an excellent facility but it is poorly lit so can’t be used in the evening. This is about as good as it gets in the area – and so everything needs an upgrade to encourage outdoor activity.”
“In other countries, they meltdown excess plastic to use in the roads. There are a lot of potholes along the high street and these could be filled with the plastic instead of fossil fuels – this is one simple solution to a number of problems!”
Stonelaw High School
“The main focus for us as a school is to educate people on the things that are going wrong, what we can do to change it. We need to make sure everyone has an awareness of the problems. Currently, the information is inaccessible and not part of the curriculum – this needs to change.”
“We should change the focus from ‘polar bears aren’t going to survive’ to ‘how does this affect me.”
Trinity High School
“We want schools to have a Net 0 carbon footprint by 2030.”
“School buses and transport needs to be renewed – the current school buses date back to the 1980s so they’re not modernised or sustainable.”
Rutherglen High School
“It would be good to keep encouraging people to be active – there should be plans for more cycle paths.”
“We think a lot about litter and the dangers to wildlife. I think we should put out advertisements on TV, and other devices, to highlight these dangers.”
