Northern Ireland

Andrea McKernon at Cop26: `Doomed RMS Titanic now signalling the perilous warning of climate change'

The `SS Planet Titanic' duet is belting out Frank Sinatra's `Come Fly With Me' on the streets of central Glasgow
The `SS Planet Titanic' duet is belting out Frank Sinatra's `Come Fly With Me' on the streets of central Glasgow The `SS Planet Titanic' duet is belting out Frank Sinatra's `Come Fly With Me' on the streets of central Glasgow

RMS Titanic is synonymous with many aspects of Belfast, being built of course in the city's shipyard.'

But now the doomed ship that sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic is going through another incarnation - signalling the perilous warning of climate change.

The `SS Planet Titanic' duet is belting out Frank Sinatra's `Come Fly With Me' on the streets of central Glasgow.

The man's rendition of the swinging hit attracts passersby, but the seagull, perched atop the painted cardboard lifebuoy and `voiced' by the woman, is constantly interjecting in a Belfast/Scottish twang.

To "weatherwise it's such a lovely day", Mrs Seagull admonishes Old Blue Eyes that the weather is at global warming stage and he's not to be so selfish to go flying anywhere. To "Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away", seagull warns Co2 emissions are killing the planet. You get the drift.

The Cop26 armada is in town. A sweeping tide of protestors embarking on a two-week marathon. They navigate and bob around Glasgow making their appeal with banners, flags, drums and loud hailers.

Just as many in number are the thousands of delegates and security.

All around the city are foreign voices, people in national and ethnic dress, American, European, Irish and English accents. A lot of twenty and thirty-somethings pack out the vegan cafes where even an Australian twang is heard.

And it's the same for the global media. Reporters - from the Indian sub-continent, Asia and Europe - throng the streets and squares talking into cameras and tripod-mounted mobile phones.

Like an influx that has come ashore on the latest ship, Glasgow is a city of wheeling suitcases, broadcast tech and phone navigating-visitors making their way to George Square, surrounding streets and the conference arena on the River Clyde where most of the world's nations are represented.

Everywhere are yellow and black uniformed police, thousands around town - especially at the closed off roads into Glasgow's Scottish Exhibition Campus.

I arrived by ferry in Cairnryan and made my way to the city to stay (via alas, petrol car) with my electric bike on the bike rack to see what a Cop looks like.

Arriving in the city with my phone not behaving itself, I thought I'd ask another type of cop, a policeman, for directions.

"I haven't a clue," he says in a Scouse accent.

"I'm up from Liverpool," he adds checking his own phone to get me directions.

I'm staying on the south side of the city with a Cop26 accommodation provider and eBiking my way into the centre.

Glaswegians have been offering up their rooms and homes for free and nominal amounts to visitors.

The Cop26 Homestay Network allowed me to visit without paying the hugely inflated hotel and Airbnb prices.

The homesharing community has been set up for the `climate justice community' - not just cheaper, but as the network says, more environmentally friendly.

That will do for this less than perfect climate justice supporter.