Heading to COP26? Read this alternative guide

Heading to COP26 and wanting to explore a bit? Here are five things you can do that don’t involve world leaders giving speeches.

Take a soundwalk around Glasgow 

Ever wondered what the climate crisis sounds like?

In the west end of Glasgow, you can take a self-guided soundwalk to find out.

Put together by Glasgow-based festival Sound Thought, the Dear Green Bothy soundwalk explores the impact of humans and noise pollution on local environments with a different soundscape composition allocated to each specific location.

To participate, you can download or stream the audio from the Sound Thought website, where a map of the trail is also available.

The Dear Green Bothy Soundwalk

Join a global day of action for climate justice

On November 6, people around the world are being invited to join a global day of action for climate justice to demand decisive action on climate change from leaders.

The COP26 coalition has put together a map showing where local and regional campaigners are gathering for marches, talks and demonstrations near you, with most major UK cities participating.

The coalition is urging anyone in a local area without plans for mobilising to organise their own event. You can see the map and read more about the COP26 Coalition’s demands at their website.

cop26coalition.org/map/

Learn about the climate in a man-made forest 

We doubt you’ve seen a conference room that looks quite like this one. For the New York Times’ COP26 Climate Hub, artist Es Devlin has installed a temporary forest of 197 real trees and plants to represent the 197 countries that have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The idea is to subvert traditional notions of a white-washed, top-lit conference room, with a series of climate-focused talks, events and debates taking place in the forest – in the SWG3 events space – throughout the conference.

All events are run by the New York Times and tickets can be purchased on its climate hub website.

November 3-11, buy tickets here

Enjoy top-quality cinema at the UK Green Film Festival 

Taking place in cinemas around the country, the UK Green Film Festival celebrates the best cinema exploring environmental issues.

This year’s programme includes a documentary about climate protesters, an exploration of Germany’s protracted shift away from nuclear power and a thriller about the illegal logging trade.

Sheffield, London, Manchester, Glasgow and a host of other towns and cities will screen the films throughout COP26, with tickets available from individual cinemas.

November 3-14, ukgreenfilmfestival.org

Peer into our pre-industrial past

The thought-provoking centrepiece of the interactive Polar Zero exhibition at Glasgow Science Centre is an original glass sculpture encasing Antarctic air from the year 1765 – predating the Industrial Revolution that catalysed man-made climate change.

The exhibition explores the present and future of our relationship with the planet and its climate through the lens of the Arctic and Antarctic, where the long history of Earth is documented deep in the ice cores. 

The science centre will be home to the COP26 Green Zone, with a multitude of other events taking place there.

Get tickets here

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine. If you cannot reach local your vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.