Tomorrow afternoon thousands of people are expected to descend on Trafalgar Square to urge the UK government to get tough on climate change. Organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, including WWF, Friends of the Earth and Oxfam, the 'I Count' event will see speakers such as Rob Newman, KT Tunstall and Adam Hart Davies addressing crowds drawn (by bus, foot and other green means) from around the country.
One of the original aims of the event was to persuade Tony Blair to introduce a climate change bill in the Queen's speech. As we found out on Monday, this is already on the cards. What remains to be seen is whether it contains a pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 3% a year, as called for by the coalition.
The second aim, to get the government to negotiate an international deal to keep global warming levels less that 2C at climate change talks taking place in Nairobi next week, may also be a done deal.
If the politicians were paying any attention at all to Sir Nicholas Stern's report earlier this week, they will have heard that even a 2C rise could have a disastrous impact on the world's wildlife, while any bigger temperature increase could lead to millions of people losing their homes. If that doesn't inspire them to take action, will a mass rally in central London tip the balance? And if it doesn't, is it still worth standing up and being counted?
