Thanks to Andrew Riley, the Tynemouth Rep for Surfers Against Sewage for writing this lovely guest blog piece on the COP26 protest in Newcastle last weekend. Click here for more information on how to get involved with Surfers Against Sewage, a vital organisation worth supporting.

Andrew Riley from Surfers Against Sewage Tynemouth

Saturday 6th of November saw an estimated 300 COP26 protests around the World; with environmental groups, charities, climate activists, trade unionists, and local people gathering together to demonstrate their passion for the environment and their frustration at the world leaders for their inaction and history of broken promises over climate change.

In Newcastle, 300-400 people gathered together at the Civic Centre and march together to the Monument to show how deeply the people of the North East care about climate change and the protection of green and blue spaces, and to ensure our voice was added to the millions around the world.

Tom Bing and Billy with his handmade sign

UK based charity Surfers Against Sewage have been campaigning for cleaner seas for the last 30 years, and more recently have been highlighting the link between how human-made climate change is leading to more extreme weather events , which in turn leads to more pollution in our rivers, seas and oceans.

As surfers we experience first-hand the damage humankind is inflicting on the marine environment, through either becoming sick ourselves after surfing or seeing the deadly impact of pollution on the beaches and seas we treasure.

So, it was fitting that Surfers Against Sewage were part of a small group of surfers at the Newcastle COP26 march, using our trademark campaigning "uniform" of wetsuits, gas masks and slogan'd surfboards to highlight the importance of "Blue Spaces" and the impact humankind climate change and pollution is having.

We were joined by Tom, Sally and Billy from Yonder and local surf legend Sandy Kerr, all of whom have a long history of campaigning for clean beaches, cleaner oceans and local environmental causes.

With our wetsuits and gas masks on, carrying our surfboards with personalised slogans about the environment we were a distinctive presence in the protest, and spent a lot of our time posing for photo requests from the other protestors and press; which while making us all feel slightly like environmental celebs also hopefully highlighted our cause and our concerns.

My personal abiding memory of the march was the diversity of the crowd, from toddlers with their own banners to elderly locals concerned about the changes to their neighbourhoods and green spaces they had witnessed over their lifespans. Seeing groups as different as the Fire Brigade Union and the girl guides, all joined together through an unbreakable passion for protecting our planet was an uplifting experience.

I would thoroughly recommend attending an environmental / climate protest in future, as well as feeling part of something bigger, it strengthens your passion and commitment to protecting the earth.

As the banners said we need to do something now, as there is no ‘Planet B’....

If you are interested in finding out more about the work of Surfers Against Sewage please visit https://www.sas.org.uk/

Photos by Tom Bing.

Newcastle COP26 Protest - Andrew Riley from Surfers Against Sewage