More and more people are feeling moved by the climate emergency to take to activism in a way that they might never have before. Claire Larkin from Glasgow’s new Parents For Future group tells her story.

By Claire Larkin

My head is in my hands as I sit on the stairs. My toddler screams on the floor in a tantrum. I was up all night feeding the baby and my body feels like concrete. I cannot move to comfort him. “He’s like this all the time now,” I hear myself say later to my mother-in-law on the pavement outside. I wonder if my husband even knows she’s there. He is upstairs with a fever, cough and loss of taste. It’s March 2020 and a new virus has taken hold in the UK. I don’t know if my husband will be ok, but I can’t think about that with three children to care for.

Just two months earlier I’d visited work to show off my new baby. “I will never ask the universe for another thing, I’m just so happy,” I announced. As reports came in from China about COVID-19, I laughed at people who were concerned.

Coronavirus shattered my preconceptions. It demonstrated that our lives rely on complex, global systems. Coming out of lockdown, I felt uneasy – there are other news stories I’ve not been listening to: reports about climate change. Scientists state that if the earth warms by 4°C, human life may become extinct altogether. We’re currently on track for a catastrophic average rise of 3°C by 2100, despite 30 years of international climate agreements. People are increasingly being displaced from their homes due to rising water levels, famine and drought. This has felt distant – like China at the start of 2020 – but climate change is already affecting us all. Heat-related deaths in the UK are set to triple within 30 years.

There is a small window of opportunity to change our systems, but it has to happen now.

I felt that anything I could change as an individual just wasn’t enough to make an impact on this global crisis. I was tired of talking to other worried parents, seemingly with no platform to effect change. Through an internet search I found ‘Parents for Future’, a global movement inspired by Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future Movement. They are seeking to bring about a culture shift among parents so that climate activism becomes the norm. Their central value is love – for all children, people and the planet. This was my movement. I decided to start a group in Glasgow, the first in Scotland.

At the same time Noy Basu, another Glasgow parent I’ve never met, had the same idea. She had done work in her school to reduce its environmental impact and wanted to set up a Parents for Future group to support and inspire further action.

Thus far, we have supported and encouraged parents to work with their parent councils and nursery staff to make schools and nurseries more environmentally friendly. This includes discussions on how the environment can be included in the curriculum, promoting active travel, school gardening/planting schemes, reducing waste, etc. We have all been blown away by how receptive Glasgow schools and PTAs have been thus far. For COP26, we will be doing parent workshops across Glasgow regarding climate change.

We now have about 30 members and would love more parents from all backgrounds to join us and become a voice for environmental action within school and nursery communities. If we wait to become experts or to lead perfect lives, it will be too late. Wherever you are, please join us!

Meetings are the first Thursday of every month via Zoom. For more information, contact parentsforfuture@gmail.com.