NEW YORK: Tens of thousands of people marched in New York and across the globe yesterday, joined by celebrities and political leaders to demand urgent action to stem climate change.
Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, US former vice president turned advocate Al Gore, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and New York mayor Bill de Blasio marched down Sixth Avenue in what organisers hoped would be the largest such protest in history.
In London, an estimated 40,000 people paraded past Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament, including British actress Emma Thompson who likened the threat posed by climate change to a Martian invasion.
They were the largest of around 2,500 events and marches taking place around the world ahead of a climate change summit hosted by Ban tomorrow on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Elderly protesters, leaning on walking sticks and sitting in wheelchairs, joined young parents with children in push chairs, adults in fancy dress and community groups from all over the world in New York to march for change.
“It’s very important. Our climate is killing us,” Coula Farris, an 88-year-old New Yorker told AFP. “Young people deserve a better world and I’m very lucky I can walk,” she said.
There were chants of “we are idle not more” and “hey, hey, ho, ho, fossil fuels have got to go,” as the colourful march made its way down Sixth Avenue with giant floats, balloons and banners with slogans such as “Urgent, Save our Planet.”
Ban, wearing a baseball cap and a T-shirt with the words “I’m for Climate Action,” praised de Blasio for announcing yesterday that New York would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent over 2005 levels by 2050.
The UN secretary general walked nine blocks in the parade with Gore, de Blasio, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal, who wore a green suit and high heels.
“Our mission is to make this a decisive moment, a turning point moment and I felt today that I was seeing history starting to be made,” de Blasio said.
In Paris, nearly 5,000 people protested, according to police estimates, many on bikes, with banners that read “Climate in danger” or “World leaders, act!”
“Before we could say we didn’t know. Now we know. Climate change is already underway,” Nicolas Hulot, the president’s special envoy for the protection of the planet, told the crowd in central Paris.
Hundreds more protested in several other cities in France, including up to 700 in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.
In Madrid, hundreds gathered in front of the Environment Ministry, brandishing signs with slogans including “There’s no Planet B,” “Change your life, not your climate,” and “Our climate, your decision.”
In Cairns, Australia, where finance ministers from the G20 nations were meeting, more than 100 people wearing green paper hearts around their necks gathered outside the venue.
They repeatedly chanted “Every dollar spent, every single cent, 100 percent, green energy” and carried banners including one that read: “Add climate change to the G20.”
“I’m here because I’m a parent, I’m here because I’m a scientist, I understand what climate change means for our planet, our children, our economy, our health,” said John Rainbird, an Australian biologist.
Hundreds also gathered in Sydney, Australia, and in New Delhi, India, where around 300 protesters carried placards that read “I want to save forests” and “Coal kills”, as they shouted slogans and danced to pounding drum beats.
Police had no immediate estimate of turnout in New York, but witnesses told AFP that tens of thousands took part. London organisers, who said about 40,000 marched there, said the turnout exceeded their expectations.
The “People’s Climate March” in New York was endorsed by more than 1,400 organisations, including environment, faith and justice groups, as well as labour unions. Students have mobilised marchers from more than 300 college campuses.
The protest wound its way from Central Park West through midtown on a 3.2-kilometer route that was to end at 11th Avenue between 34th and 38th Streets.
Ricken Patel, executive director of Avaaz, a pressure group that is one of the organisers, presented a petition signed by two million people to Ban.
“We feel very confident that we will achieve our goal, which is to have the largest climate change march in history,” Patel told AFP.
After a moment of silence, slightly obscured in the chaos, participants used instruments, alarms and whistles to make as much noise as possible at 1pm.
The UN meeting tomorrow sets the stage for a crucial conference in Paris in December 2015 aimed at finalising an agreement. AFP
