media release
everyone campaign
IT’S TIME – To Save Our Environment!
say the pupils of Firrhill High School and Scottish Environment LINK
27 June 2007
Today the students of Firrhill High School presented a petition of green footprints to the Scottish Parliament - to convince our politicians to help everyone in Scotland leave a greener footprint.
Receiving the petition were Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment and Stefan Tymkewycz, MSP for the Lothians.
After this they took time to debate environmental and political issues with the hard to impress audience of Class 2B3 from Firrhill High School; who pressed for answers about the government’s plans to cut CO2 emissions, its strategy of energy generation and why it doesn’t like trams.
These second year students are not short of political savvy; in the run up to the recent Scottish Parliamentary elections, their school - Firrhill High School became involved with the green footprint petition, run by the everyone campaign (of Scottish Environment LINK). During the campaign, LINK asked people to fill-in their ‘green footprint’ as a sign of support for environmental policies to become central to the approach of the new administration. Over 2000 footprints were pledged by Scottish voters, completed in a huge variety of creative styles, and these were today presented by Class 2B3 to the Parliament.
Following the success of the everyone election campaign, Scottish Environment LINK has said that environmental issues that were once marginalised, such as climate change, green networks, management of nature and sustainable food, have now become a major part of the political agenda.
Firrhill High School is a six year comprehensive school situated in the south west of Edinburgh. The school occupies an attractive site overlooking the Pentland Hills and has a roll of 1160 pupils and over 120 staff. Its pupils have a history of political action - they were amongst some of the early voices calling (successfully) for a smoking ban in Scotland.
