A Thousand Pairs of Children's Shoes Laid at the Angel of the North to Mourn Death of Child Climate Victims

A group of grandmothers, grandfathers and parents have laid out a thousand children's shoes at the Angel of the North to demand that we "Give Children A Future".

The shoes have been laid out onto an image of a bicycle marking the sixth stage of the Tour of Britain Cycle Race which finishes at the Angel. These empty shoes symbolise the lives of the children already lost to climate change and give a stark warning of those young people who will die in the future because of the impact that humans are having on our planet. 

Kevin Haigh, organiser, said: "It's even more important for the legion of children who are going to die in the future, if we don't act now."

"This is what we need at COP26 - a significant figure or group of people to stand up and say we have to change - that from, say, January next year we have to do A, B and C and for people to start taking these actions to stop climate change."

Kay, volunteer, from Durham, said: "I think people are becoming aware of the changes in weather events and how even on a very local level that can lead to flooding and drought and how that is in the future going to mean that large parts of our planet are not sustainable for our people to live in, for crops to grow. So there is going to be the need for migration in a way that we have not even begun to think about yet. There will be many children in places where resources will be in very short supply, putting their lives at risk."

It's time to act. This emotional display is yet another reminder and another call to arms against the effects of climate change.

Karen, volunteer, said: "We haven't got eight or nine years, we need to start now. We've got to say: whatever we have, even if its imperfect, let's begin, we can improve as we go along. But let's just start because we can slow this down."

Scroll down to see photography of the display. More to come...