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Global rallies for action on Climate Change

People’s Climate March: Hundreds of thousands march in rallies calling for action on climate change An international day of action on climate change brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of New York City on Sunday, easily exceeding organisers’ hopes for the largest protest on the issue in history.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-22/thousands-march-in-new-york-climate-change-protest/5759184

Organisers estimated that some 310,000 people, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former US Vice President Al Gore, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and elected officials from the United States and abroad joined the People’s Climate March, ahead of Tuesday’s United Nations hosted summit in the city to discuss reducing carbon emissions that threaten the environment.

People joined more than 2,000 marches around the world demanding urgent action on climate change.

The march in New York came ahead of Tuesday’s United Nations-hosted summit in the city to discuss reducing carbon emissions that threaten the environment.

Organisers said some 550 busloads of people had arrived for the rally, which followed similar events in 166 countries including Australia, Britain, France, Afghanistan, Mexico and Bulgaria.

More than 10,000 people took to the streets in Melbourne, with many more in Australia’s other capital cities. A crowd including US senators Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island marched along the city’s Central Park, through midtown Manhattan to Times Square, where they stopped for a moment of silence.

Mr Moon, wearing a blue t-shirt that read “I’m for climate action” marched arm-in-arm with primatologist Jane Goodall and French ecology minister Segolene Royal.

“This is the planet where our subsequent generations will live,” Mr Moon told reporters.

“There is no Plan B, because we do not have Planet B.”

Mr DiCaprio marched towards the front of the group, with members of an Ecuadorean tribe who have fought a years-long legal battle with Chevron Corp over Amazon pollution.

“This is the most important issue of our time,” Mr DiCaprio said.

“I’m incredibly proud to be here.”

Organisers billed the event as the largest gathering focused on climate change since 2009, when tens of thousands gathered in Copenhagen in a sometime raucous demonstration that resulted in the detention of 2,000 protesters.

The march comes days after the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that August 2014 was the warmest on record, 0.75 degrees Celsius above the 20th century global average of 15.6 degrees.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday unveiled a new plan for the city to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent from 2005 levels by 2050.

All 3,000 major city-owned buildings would be retrofitted with energy-saving heating, cooling and light systems by then, he said, though meeting the commitment will also require significant investments by private landlords.

September 22, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general