Schoolchildren who have been cleaning up plastic waste from the Millwall Docks have been to Downing Street to urge the prime minister to “take the lead” at next week's Cop 26 world climate conference.
Youngsters aged four to 11 at Canary Wharf College on the Isle of Dogs have written letters, cards and posters with their concerns about “the impending climate disaster” that their generation would inherit.
They told Boris Johnson about their worries that "polar bears would have no home" and about deforestation and species becoming extinct.
“The world is sad,” was on one picture. Year 6 pupil Lucia insisted: “I won’t be satisfied until you take more action on climate change.”
Year 4 youngsters unfurled a poster saying “you can make the change” when they turned up with the school’s principal Martin Blain on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street.
“Our pupils have spoken,” he told the East London Advertiser. “They go on many trips cleaning up the docks from plastic waste.
“We are pushing the PM to lead the leaders. The UK must lead the way, being one of the most advanced countries in the world and must share our green technology.”
The primary free school in Saunders Ness Road, by the Thames waterfront, doesn’t just talk about climate change.
Pupils regularly go out on chartered boats “fishing for plastic” in the Millwall Docks on a punt made of recycled plastics. They scoop up litter to prevent it seeping out into the Thames and eventually ending up polluting the seas and oceans.
They took part in the launch in 2017 of the world’s first boat made with 99 per cent polymer from recycled plastic waste when then-government environment minister Thérèse Coffey boarded the boat for its maiden voyage in the Millwall Docks.
The idea for the boat came from Canary Wharf College. The plastic fishing trips in the waters around the school proved popular as well as being educational.
The children also hold litter pick days, clearing discarded plastic waste from the streets.
Many believe the UN’s 26th annual conference on climate change opening in Glasgow on October 31 is "the world’s best last chance" to get runaway climate change under control.
The pupils want Mr Johnson taking the reins so their generation has “a world to inherit before it’s too late”.
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