Perth ecomuseum cancels COP26 events due to extreme weather

Heavy rain caused flooding in the area

Author: Dale EatonPublished 2nd Nov 2021

The Cateran Ecomuseum in Perth had planned multiple events in the lead up to COP26. Unfortunately, the weekends heavy rainfall saw flooding in Alyth which caused multiple road closures.

Due to these closures the locations of the events became inaccessible to most people, forcing the museum to make the difficult decision to cancel. On Saturday, the museums new climate timeline, charting the impact of climate change on the local area, opened to the public but just a day later it was forced to close.

One of the museums directors Clare Cooper said: "One of our friends in Alyth took this incredible photo, Steve Taylor, which was the one that we were posting on social media of the waters right up over the Alyth burn lapping the bottom of this climate change timeline.

"That was incredibly ironic, within literally within 24 hours of opening that we had another major flood. I think it is part of a wake up call that we all need to pay attention to. It is extremely frightening to experience these weather events even in a developed country like Scotland."

The climate timeline was the second COP26 event thrown by the museum with the other also being cancelled. This was mainly due to the closure to sections of the A93. The event was due to go ahead on Monday morning at the Spittal of Glenshee.

The event revolves around the giant hand that has been constructed on one of the hills at the Spittal of Glenshee. Based on the stories of giants being asleep under mountains ready to be awoken at times of emergency. The planned event would have seen a pictish war horn blown three times to wake up the giant ahead of COP26.

The event is in the process of being rescheduled and there is hope that it can go ahead this weekend.

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