Today, people from New York and cities around the US, as well as many more from around the world, converged to march through the streets of New York City in what is being called the largest climate-change march in history. Here is a collection of some thoughts of people who were there, in no particular order, of why they were there:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to demonstrate there are an awful lot of people that care about climate change and demonstrate that this is a huge issue for all kinds of people…Since the fossil fuel companies have money, we have to have something on our side, and that\u2019s people…It\u2019s going to be beautiful…It\u2019s like sounding a burglar alarm on the people who are stealing the future.\u201d Bill McKibben, head of 350.org, the organizing group<\/p>\n \u201cBrothers and sisters, we\u2019re calling out to the world to join together for true change. Let\u2019s leave the oil beneath the ground…the Sarayaku indigenous people believe that instead of bringing \u2018development\u2019, the oil industry is destructive for indigenous society, non-indigenous society, the planet, and nature.” Patricia Gualinga, international relations director for Kichwa indigenous community of Sarayaku, Ecuadorian Amazon<\/p>\n “While marching with the people, I felt that I had become a secretary-general of the people..there is no Plan B because we do not have a planet B. We have to work and galvanize our action.\u201d U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not on course for a safe world…(this is) about saving the lives of those affected by climate change as well as future generations.\u201d UN Special Envoy for Climate Change Mary Robinson<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a campaign to solve complacency against climate change…we are making a statement that is anything but complacent.\u201d Sting<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we hear when we\u2019re meeting with elected leaders about this issue is that it\u2019s fine that you\u2019re meeting with us, but the general public doesn\u2019t care about this issue…No, the general public does care, and here we are.\u201d May Boeve 350.org executive director<\/p>\n (Leaders from China, India, Germany, Australia and Canada are not attending the UN Climate Summit) \u201cThey need to be here in the summit to make commitments\u201d Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International<\/p>\n \u201cIt (Hurricane Sandy) woke us up to the global situation…If things keep going like they are, our house will be under water in 20 years.\u201d Lisa Cline and Matt Haasch of Newburgh, New York, had their home on the Hudson flooded by Hurricane Sandy, as the water level rose 9 feet above the tidal peak<\/p>\n “Today I am marching for my children. I am marching so they can live in a world without worrying about the next big storm destroying their community.” Bill Aristovolus, the superintendent of an apartment building in New York City’s working-class Bronx borough<\/p>\n “No major cultural change has happened in this country without the voice of religious leaders. It is a justice issue and something that religious leaders of all denominations are called to address.” Reverend Sally Bingham, Power & Light<\/p>\n “Climate change is an existential threat to New Yorkers and our planet…Acting now is nothing short of a moral imperative.” Bill de Blasio, New York Mayor<\/p>\n “I\u2019m here because I really feel that every major social movement in this country has come when people get together.\u201d Carol Sutton of Norwalk, Conn., the president of a teachers\u2019 union<\/p>\n \u201cThe climate is changing…Everyone knows it; everyone feels it. But no one is doing anything about it.\u201d Otis Daniels, 58, of the Bronx<\/p>\n \u201cClimate change is no longer an environmental issue; it\u2019s an everybody issue.\u201d Sam Barratt, a campaign director for the online advocacy group Avaaz<\/p>\n \u201cIt shows we have power…It\u2019s a diverse coalition. It\u2019s broad and it\u2019s growing in strength and it\u2019s growing in diversity. And it\u2019s increasingly impatient at the rate of progress.\u201d Michael Brune, Sierra Club Executive Director<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a problem that my generation has created…My parents didn\u2019t know about this problem. But my generation knows and we have to do what we can to fix what we can.\u201d Mary Francis, 72, from Oklahoma<\/p>\n \u201c(This protest is) a message to our dysfunctional federal government that we\u2019re not going to be pushed out of our planet.\u201d New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer<\/p>\n “This is the most important issue of our time…I’m incredibly proud to be here.” Leonardo DiCaprio<\/p>\n \u201cCommunities near and far, from the Rockaways, to Alaska, to Kiribati, are suffering the impacts of climate change \u2026 Greenpeace is joining the People\u2019s Climate March to stand in solidarity with our friends, allies, and partners that are fighting for environmental justice, and say to the polluters that ‘enough is enough’.\u201d Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA<\/p>\n “We’re here as a family for the future of our kids.” Robyn and Martin Moore with their daughter, Charlotte, 4, and son, Henry, 15 months.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thousands of Americans converging on New York City today will help to send a clear message: it is time to wake up and act on climate change. It\u2019s time to tell the special interests that continue to deny the science and mislead the public to step aside, and make way for progress.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)<\/p>\n \u201cI marched today on behalf of my two children and the clean and safe world I want them to inherit.” Marc Yaggi, executive director of the Waterkeeper Alliance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe join the People\u2019s Climate March to let global climate leaders know that in order to address the threat of climate change, they cannot underestimate the climate impacts of methane leaks from fracking.\u201d Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people lead, leaders listen. In fact, it\u2019s the only way to be sure they will.\u201d Steve Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International<\/p>\n \u201cThe sea of humanity on the streets of New York today sends a powerful, impassioned message to the world: The time to act on climate is now.\u201d Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.<\/p>\n \u201cSince humanity\u2019s survival depends on not burning two-thirds of our global oil reserves, it is imperative that we take action now by limiting fossil fuel extraction, especially in highly sensitive regions…Some places should be entirely off-limits to oil drilling. The Amazon basin is one of those places. This diverse biosphere is a keystone area in combating climate change since it regulates our planet\u2019s health. If we protect the Amazon, we can prevent compound disastrous effects across the globe. The People\u2019s Climate March is our opportunity to send a clear and united global call of action to keep the oil in the ground, starting with the Amazon.\u201d Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch<\/p>\n \u201cThroughout history, young people have risked everything to force major social change. The climate crisis is no different. We will march en masse. We will use our financial power to make college university\u2019s divest from fossil fuels. And we will use our bodies, and risk arrest to stop business as usual for fossil fuel profiteers on Wall Street.” Maura Cowley, executive director of Energy Action Coalition<\/p>\n \u201cClimate Action must be rooted in justice. The frontlines of the climate crisis are low-income people, communities of color and indigenous communities here in the U.S. and around the globe…We are the hardest hit by both climate disruption\u2014the storms, floods and droughts\u2014as well as by the extractive, polluting and wasteful industries causing global warming. We are also at the forefront of innovative community-led solutions that ensure a just transition off fossil fuels, and that support an economy good for both people and the planet. That is why Climate Justice Alliance members are here in the thousands, to march and say to global leaders: we have the solutions to ecological and economic crises.\u201d Cindy Wiesner, co-director of The Climate Justice Alliance<\/p>\n \u201cI may be an old coal miner, but I know that global warming is real…I also know that things can be changed. I know we don\u2019t have to destroy our world. That\u2019s why I\u2019m joining the Climate March.\u201d Stanley Sturgill, retired coal miner, and member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, people from New York and cities around the US, as well as many more from around the world, converged to march through the streets of New York City in what is being called the largest climate-change march in history. Here is a collection of some thoughts of people who were there, in no particular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[14,15,16,22,27,21,29,20,28,17,24,26,18,25],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-york-tales","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-onlyinnewyork","tag-blognybox","tag-climate-change","tag-donald-lee","tag-global-warming","tag-life-in-new-york","tag-mckibben","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-only-in-new-york","tag-short-story","tag-stories"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emagines.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}