by Rob Booth, Joshua Holland, John Light, Sikay Tang
More than 300,000 protestors marched through the streets of New York City for the Peoples Climate March — part of an international day of action to call attention to the issue — exceeding the expectations of organizers.
The demonstrators hoped to send a message to world leaders that a diverse and growing international contingent wants action to reign in our fossil fuel-powered economies and to tackle the problems associated with our planet’s increasingly out-of-control climate. The UN will meet this week in New York to begin work on a climate commitment to lower emissions — and possibly aid poorer countries struggling to deal with climate change — that it hopes nations will sign on to in 2015.
The turnout was nearly three times larger than organizers anticipated: Early estimates of 310,000 would make the march one of the larger protests in American history, rivaling the size of the 1963 March on Washington. It would also make today’s demonstration more than three times the size of the rally before the UN summit in Copenhagen in 2009.
At 12:58, organizers quieted the crowd, and the usually noisy city — with its streets cleared of cars and buses but full of sign-carrying protestors — fell silent for a moment to honor those whose lives have already been affected by climate change. Then, at 1 p.m., the streets erupted as protestors with whistles, drums and horns “sounded the alarm” on the crisis.
The demonstrators hoped to send a message to world leaders that a diverse and growing international contingent wants action to reign in our fossil fuel-powered economies and to tackle the problems associated with our planet’s increasingly out-of-control climate. The UN will meet this week in New York to begin work on a climate commitment to lower emissions — and possibly aid poorer countries struggling to deal with climate change — that it hopes nations will sign on to in 2015.
The turnout was nearly three times larger than organizers anticipated: Early estimates of 310,000 would make the march one of the larger protests in American history, rivaling the size of the 1963 March on Washington. It would also make today’s demonstration more than three times the size of the rally before the UN summit in Copenhagen in 2009.
At 12:58, organizers quieted the crowd, and the usually noisy city — with its streets cleared of cars and buses but full of sign-carrying protestors — fell silent for a moment to honor those whose lives have already been affected by climate change. Then, at 1 p.m., the streets erupted as protestors with whistles, drums and horns “sounded the alarm” on the crisis.
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