TOMORROW’S Sunday National will be guest-edited by a group of Scotland’s young climate strikers.
It comes ahead of the Global Strike For Climate, which takes place on September 20 and includes events in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Among the line-up of guest editors is Erin Curtis, the 15-year-old from Glasgow whose question to the five Tory candidates in their leadership race debate on the BBC shot her to fame.
On shaping this weekend’s Sunday National, she said: “We want people to be aware of what’s happening so they can get involved. It’s a good opportunity for us to present our cause to people and persuade them to have their voices heard.
“We want to be listened to – it’s got a lot of info, the edition on Sunday, about why we strike and what we believe in, and we think if people want to educate themselves on w hat our movement is about, they should pick up a copy.”
Dylan Hamilton, 15, said editing the Sunday National would be a chance to put the focus on what is happening to the climate, rather than the fact they were missing school – saying the latter was missing the point.
The activist went on: “The media like opposition. So they tend not to cover the strikes themselves very often.
“The BBC have sent reporters and not covered it at all.
“Suddenly, when Edinburgh Council challenge us, they have an article on it the next day. And they’ve tried to put climate change deniers on to debate with us three times – that is not okay.”
Neelu Saraswatibhatla, 17, was inspired to get involved on this issue after seeing a lack of action from adults in response to the IPCC report.
He said: "The media could do a better job of advertising our events. They don’t cover our strikes nearly as much as they should."
Emil Carr, 17, said being guest editors would be an excellent opportunity to bring their points on reliance on oil to National readers, explaining: "I think there tends to be a tendency among independence supporters to be very invested in oil, seeing Scotland’s economy revolving around it if we become independent.
"We see this as a good chance to say that, no, Scotland could be independent – we’re not expressing an opinion on that – and still prosper centred around a renewable circular economy."
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