Climate Change

The world's largest ever march against climate change on Sunday (21 September) brought 400,000 people to the streets of New York, starting a lively parade at Central Park. On Tuesday, 120 of the world's political leaders – notably not including the Chinese and Indians – gathered 25 blocks away at the United Nations. The message they got from society was symbolized by the march route: instead of heading toward the UN building, the activists headed the other way, west.

According to oft-cited statistics, climate scientists are 95%-99% certain of climate change – about as certain as they are of the link between smoking and lung cancer. Nonetheless, an estimated 58% of US Republican congressmen claim to be unconvinced of it. This group, the so-called “climate denier caucus,” is a big part of the reason that meaningful climate activist legislation keeps getting shot down. And according to a recent report, some of America’s most popular companies are helping to fund the effort.

A. The Environmental Crisis

The "environmental crisis" is actually a number of crises, including the following:

climate change;
acidification of the oceans (related to elevated atmospheric CO2 levels);
pollution of air, water, soil, and organisms with harmful substances;
degradation of agricultural soils;
destruction of wetlands and tropical forests; and
accelerated extinction of species.

The iconic skyline was shrouded in fog as we struggled to exit the subway on Sunday morning in New York. Standing at the head of the stairs a blue shirt called for our cooperation, his plaintive tone infused with the sort of accent that movies lead us to expect from NYPD beat cops.

“I need your help here, folks. They’ve closed all the stations up to here, so everyone is going to be coming out this exit. I need you all to help me out and keep moving.”

Climate Convergence Plenary Address, Friday, 19 September 2014

Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project, Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees

Good evening everyone and thank you to Jill, Margaret and the other convergence organizers for the opportunity to speak to you tonight.

Since each of us gets only a few minutes for our contributions on such a large subject as climate change, I have chosen to put forward ten brief points for a trade union strategy against climate change. Firstly, I will establish some of the important factual basis on which we have to build our strategies and policies.

Over 300,000 people march through the streets of New York, 21 September 2014.

1. Climate change is not a threat of the future, it is already happening here and now, it is man-made, and the consequences can be catastrophic.

We have undergone a transformation during the last few decades—what John Ralston Saul calls a corporate coup d’état in slow motion. We are no longer a capitalist democracy endowed with a functioning liberal class that once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible.

The most hopeful, diverse, photogenic, energizing and often hilarious march I've joined in 52 years of activism—and one of the biggest, at 310,000 strong—has delivered a simple messag​e: we can and will rid the planet of fossil fuels and nuclear power, we will do it at the grassroots, it will be demanding and difficult to say the least, but it will have its moments of great fun.

With our lives and planet on the line, our species has responded.

Ostensibly, this march was in part meant to influence policy makers. That just goes with the territory.

An estimated 400,000 people flooded the streets of New York City on Sunday for the historic People's Climate March, billed as the largest demonstration of its kind in history, organized by more than 1,500 organizations including indigenous, faith, labor, environmental justice, social justice, youth, and climate activism groups.

The march was at least four times the size of pre-march estimates, which stood at 100,000.

Just hours after roughly 400,000 packed the streets of New York City for the People's Climate March, a flood of people marched to the city's financial district to target what they say is the root of the climate crisis: capitalism itself.

Demonstrators sporting blue aimed to stage a mass sit-in Monday morning "at the heart of capital"—Wall Street—to call out and demand transformation of "an economic system based on exploiting frontline communities, workers and natural resources."