(image: People's Climate/Facebook)
19 September 14
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climate crisis is worsening faster than predicted, by every scientific
measure, and is paralleled by another crisis: the failure of the U.N.
climate negotiation process. "You have been negotiating all my life,"
student activist Anjali Appadurai said as she addressed the formal
climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, back in 2011. The climate
negotiations have been in a virtual gridlock, with nations, most notably
the United States under President Obama, blocking progress and
protecting their national interests while the planet heats up,
potentially irreversibly.
"I speak for more than half the world's population. We
are the silent majority," Appadurai said as the designated youth
speaker. "You've given us a seat in this hall, but our interests are not
on the table. What does it take to get a stake in this game? Lobbyists?
Corporate influence? Money?"
Three years later, the United Nations is now holding a
special climate summit in New York City on Sept. 23, with more than 100
world leaders expected. Unlike the formal U.N. climate negotiations,
the goal of this nonbinding summit, the U.N. says, is "to raise
political will and mobilize action, thereby generating momentum toward a
successful outcome of the negotiations." After 20 years, U.N. officials
have apparently realized that, if left to the usual suspects of
government and industry participants, the efforts to achieve a legally
binding climate accord, slated for Paris in December 2015, will fail.
Grass-roots action is now seen as a critical component for success.
Environmental activists protested in outrage at the
climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009, when President Obama showed up and
derailed the U.N. negotiations by holding closed-door meetings with the
world's largest polluting nations. Back then, the United Nations
responded by ejecting the activists. The U.N. climate negotiations are
held around the world, but always in tightly secured convention
facilities, far from people most directly impacted by climate change,
and far from the sight and sound of climate activists who converge at
the summits, hoping to pressure the negotiators to reach a deal before
it is too late.
Just days before Ban Ki-moon's invite-only summit next
week, a broad coalition will hold the People's Climate March, expected
to be the largest march addressing climate change in history. People
from all walks of life will gather on Central Park's west side on
Sunday, Sept. 21. Organizers expect over 100,000 people. More than 1,200
marching bands have been confirmed.
People will march in "blocs." At the front of the
march, "Frontlines of Crisis, Forefront of Change" will include
indigenous and other communities directly affected by fossil-fuel
extraction and the impacts of climate change. Organized labor and
students will march under the banner "We Can Build the Future," followed
by "We Have Solutions" — alternative energy and sustainable food and
water groups. The "We Know Who Is Responsible" bloc will highlight
fossil-fuel corporations, banks and other polluters. Scientists and
interfaith activists will comprise "The Debate Is Over" bloc, followed
by the final, all-inclusive bloc, "To Change Everything, We Need
Everyone."
One of the principal organizers of the People's
Climate March is Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, the climate-change
organization named after 350 parts per million, the concentration of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that scientists consider to be safe and
sustainable. Says McKibben, "The only way we'll change ... is by
building a big movement. That's why September 21 in New York, which all
these groups are coordinating, is such an important day."
During the weekend, Union Theological Seminary is
hosting a conference of clergy from around the world, addressing the
moral issues raised by human-induced global warming. On Monday, the day
after the big march, some independent groups are planning to "Flood Wall
Street." "Flood, blockade, sit-in, and shut down the institutions that
are profiting from the climate crisis," the group's website implores,
with a check box to indicate if you are willing to risk arrest. A group
calling itself the "Earth Quaker Action Team" will theatrically
investigate New York City branches of PNC Bank for the crime of "climate
disruption," for the bank's role in financing mountaintop-removal coal
mining.
Sunday's climate march won't include speeches. It's
all about the movement. But on Monday, author Naomi Klein will be among
those speaking at the Wall Street actions. Her new book is out this
week, titled "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate." It
is a powerful, passionate, paradigm-shattering call to action. In it,
she reminds us, "climate change changes everything. And for a very brief
time, the nature of that change is still up to us."
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