It was “the day the climate movement came of age,” tweeted 350.org’s Bill McKibben, one of the leaders of Sunday, September 21’s, People’s Climate March in New York City. An unprecedented 400,000 people filled the streets, starting near Central Park and moving south past Radio City Music Hall, demanding that world leaders take action on the climate crisis ahead of this week’s UN Climate Summit.
Never again can it be said that the public is apathetic: two hours after the front of the march got moving, those of us toward the back hadn’t yet started walking.
The march was led by those directly affected by a warming climate or fossil fuel extraction, including families displaced by Hurricane Sandy, indigenous communities overrun by tar sands development and residents of towns poisoned by coal mining. Further back, scientists and climate experts walked behind ranchers fighting pipelines.
The New York march was the largest of hundreds of similar events across the world. More than 70 were held in Canada, including one starting in Nathan Phillips Square attended by more than 3,000 people.
We’ve seen large protests before against mega-pipelines like Keystone XL and Northern Gateway, fracking and coal-powered plants.
But New York marked a turning point for the climate change movement – the day it became a full-fledged social movement in North America. Will it finally force the U.S. to lead on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, as it must if the rest of the planet is to follow?
With President Barack Obama’s announcement of major new efforts to cut coal pollution, there is hope.
In the Big Apple, I walked with thousands of Canadians fed up with our federal government’s obsession with reckless expansion of the tar sands. We carried our flags uneasily.
The feds have repeatedly promised action on the climate, but those promises have all been empty. Not one federal regulation limits carbon emissions from the tar sands, this country’s fastest-growing cause of global warming.
Canada’s stalling tactic – that it would act if the U.S. acted first – no longer cuts it. As part of the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, both countries agreed to reduce their carbon emissions by 17 per cent by 2020. Our neighbour to the south is on track. In contrast, Canada is set to massively miss its target – reducing emissions by a mere 0.4 per cent by 2020. If the auto regulations the government re-announced this week are actually passed, Canada’s carbon emissions will decline by an estimated 0.8 per cent.
In little more than a year, world leaders are expected to try again to agree on a global climate treaty. We have no time to waste.3
Adam Scott is climate and energy program manager for Environmental Defence.
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