Largest Climate March Ever!
By Thom Hartmann A...
On Sunday, the world's largest climate march took over New York City. In addition to the 400,000 people who showed up to demand change in the Big Apple, hundreds of thousands more joined events in at least 156 counties. From London to Rio to Melbourne to New York, people around the world joined together to demand action on climate change.
Protesters sang, marched, chanted, and discussed creative solutions for our climate crisis, and they were joined by celebrities, lawmakers, leaders, and scientists. The events were scheduled to take place two days before the United Nation Summit on Climate Change in New York, where world leaders discuss plans to save our environment. Organizers say that Sunday's massive events marked the beginning of an international push for real action at the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris of 2015. Next year, world leaders will meet at that summit to try to reach a new global agreement to reduce global greenhouse gasses.
Hoda Baraka of 350.org described the international movement, saying, “It is, at the end of the day, a global moment. It's a global issue. All [of] these different constituencies coming together for climate action – that's a really important and telling turning point for the climate movement.” Many of those who participated at events this Sunday said that the massive crowds show real promise for an even larger event next year.
Our lawmakers here in the U.S. may still be sitting on the fence when it comes to saving our planet, but Sunday's crowds show that Americans are ready for real action on climate change. And, crowds all over the world show that we are not alone. We only have one planet to call home, and the people of the world are demanding that we protect it.
Comments
#2
What impresses me most about the climate change march in New York is the over-whelming media coverage of the most important event ever! There must have been cameras everywhere! All the media big wheels were right on top of everything. Even Fox "News" was covering the event.
NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT! NOT!
Why not? Because media is in bed with big oil. They would rather see the earth burn to a crisp than to give up one silver (sort of) dime of profit.
#3
Thanks to the movements of the 1960's, we have integrated schools, we left the Viet Nam War, and public awareness of DDT in the environment and the concept of health food were born.
The greatest reward for me was the day my son said, "I'm so glad I never had to worry about being drafted."
Me too.
#4
There are many things necessary to make changes in the climate. One of them is organization and the march in NYC yesterday was very, very important in many ways. I was in NYC with the march and to know that 400,000 people of all ages, diverse backgrounds, children of all ages, men with men, women/women, people in wheelchairs and with walkers, and everyone in good spirits and not judging. We are happy. And that is a microcosm of what so many people feel. Look at the thousands marching across the globe and those who supported us but unable to participate. That is not just a march; that is a mandate. Second it is a very important statement shouting to the corporations and legislators that we are are no longer going to sit back and take their greed and destructive techniques. This fight is not over - not by a long shot. I am with 350.org and the Sierra Club and we, along with the unions, students, scientists are going to work even harder.
We have many plans and we are motivated by the love of our planet and our children and all of life that Earth supports. We are on the brink of the Sixth Extinction. That means the planet will shrug us off if we do not begin making changes yesterday and every day forward. We. Will. Prevail. If you are not willing to help, get out of the way.
#5
No matter how much picketing, protesting and civil disobedience takes place, the politicians will continue "sitting on the fence," not just here in the USian Imperial Homeland, but everywhere else on this capitalist-ruined planet.
Indeed, that's why capitalism is everywhere racing to attain its final form -- fascism. The One Percenters and their Ruling-Class servants -- the politicians, bureaucrats, military officers and police commanders who are methodically oppressing all the rest of us -- understand the awakening symbolized by the New York City march and the related activities in approximately 156 other nations.
But our masters have already decided (1)-that our planet is doomed; (2)-that they will make their final days as lavishly comfortable as possible; and (3)-that they will savage us to whatever extent they deem necessary to maintain their comforts.
Which is, of course, the point where the resistance to police brutality at Ferguson and the global resistance to capitalist ecocide become the same terminal struggle. The choice is simple: either we abolish capitalism or our species becomes extinct.
#6
Same as with occupy, big money (puppet master of the govt and therefore the cops too), will find a way to justify the cops to attack the protesters again.
#7
I hope when they gather in Paris they focus on the real problem with climate change. China and India. Putting solar panels on our houses and driving electric cars here is kind of like swatting at a bug when a bear is biting your leg. If we are going to get serious about climate change lets go where the real problem is and start there.
#8
The real problems with climate change is factory farming and fossil fuel consumption. Blaming it all on India and China seems a tad myopic. - AIW
#9
Hi Alice. Miss ya. How the heck is factory farming a major contributor to climate change compared to 1.3 billion Indians polluting the world? Or a billion Chinese pumping pollution into the air mining earth metals for your solar panels? All the environmentalist are here because that's where the money is. Take Gore for example. If I remember right he said the oceans would rise by two inches by now. Oh well what is a few little tales when you make a hundred million.
#10
Hi Kend. That’s nice of you to miss me, considering what a hard time I’ve given you these past couple years!
I could have answered your question about corporate farming’s role in global warming with just two words: cow farts. These are a significant source of CO2 pollution. However not being a scientist or biologist, I couldn’t give as detailed a response as I would’ve liked, so I google searched and found an article by Ronnie Cummins. And here is an exerpt from that article:
“Today, nearly 65 billion animals worldwide, including cows, chickens and pigs, are crammed into CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations). These animals are literally imprisoned and tortured in unhealthy, unsanitary and unconscionably cruel conditions. Sickness is the norm for animals who are confined rather than pastured, and who eat GMO corn and soybeans, rather than grass and forage as nature intended. To prevent the inevitable spread of disease from stress, overcrowding and lack of vitamin D, animals are fed a steady diet of antibiotics. Those antibiotics pose a direct threat to the environment when they run off into our lakes, rivers, aquifers and drinking water.”
“CAFOs contribute directly to global warming by releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere—more than the entire global transportation industry. The air at some factory farm test sites in the U.S. is dirtier than in America’s most polluted cities, according to the Environmental Integrity Project. According to a 2006 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, including 37 percent of methane emissions and 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions. The methane releases from billions of imprisoned animals on factory farms are 70 times more damaging per ton to the earth’s atmosphere than CO2.”
“Indirectly, factory farms contribute to climate disruption by their impact on deforestation and draining of wetlands, and because of the nitrous oxide emissions from huge amounts of pesticides used to grow the genetically engineered corn and soy fed to animals raised in CAFOs. Nitrous oxide pollution is even worse than methane—200 times more damaging per ton than CO2. And just as animal waste leaches antibiotics and hormones into ground and water, pesticides and fertilizers also eventually find their way into our waterways, further damaging the environment.”
Factory farms cause 37% of methane emissions, and methane is over twenty times as potent as CO2. The use of fossil fuels on farms emits 90 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere worldwide, each year. Meanwhile deforestation for animal grazing is another source of the problem, emitting 2.4 billion tons of CO2 annually. Also factory farms contribute to air pollution by releasing compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and methane.
Factory farms are bad news, Kend. We need to go back to older methods of farming. New is not always better. - AIW
#11
The previous post lists the many--the many--things wrong with CAFOs. Any one of those assaults on the Earth, the animals, or humans should be enough for us to get rid of that horrible process.
But to stick just to climate change, it is worthwhile to realize that producing a pound of grass-fed beef produces more CO2 and CH4 than in a feedlot. The main reason for that is because grass-fed cows fatten more slowly--producing those gasses all the while.
If humans ate 75% less meat--let's include pork in this--that would go a long way toward resolving the problem. Better yet, we can stop breeding as if the Earth has an infinite amount of space for us, our cities, our farms, and our waste.
I might be getting off subject here but it seems to me that the best way out is to strive for NPG (Negative Population Growth.) There is about seven billion of us now. I think that might be more people living now than the total of previous human history.
With some sort of world-wide birth control (I know that I'm probably dreaming here) we could have the births of the next seven billion earth citizens spread out of the next one thousand years or so. That way we could--at least in principle--have those billions living in prosperity. The alternative is to continue to do what we have been doing for millennia--and have 90% of those seven billion living on the edge of starvation.
#12
Not by doing nothing, you won't, either.
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like the occupy movement, this action has little effect: the polluters have no capacity for shame or guilt, having long ago made their deal with the devil (putting personal wealth over all citizenly considerations).
protest is vain; power is in the vote, and those who try to circumvent the political sphere kid themselves. stop massing in groups of agreeable people, and go out and convert others, which is harder but may actually have an effect.
we shall overcome?; not by chanting, you won't.