New York City was thriving the weekend as thousands of people marched down the streets of New York City for climate change.
According to USA Today, the “People’s Climate Change,” served as a wake up call to the government and all who will take part in the United Nations Climate Summit this week.
During Climate Week, the protest eight months in the making was a sight as environmentalists, lawyers, activists and celebrities stood side by side for one of the biggest marches on climate change ever.
The massive march kicked off at 11:30 a.m. on the ritzy Upper West Side along Central Park before winding its way through the city on a two-mile route. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, former U.S. vice president Al Gore, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and actors Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio joined thousands of protesters at the march.
More than 1,100 organizations endorsed the march, organized by a coalition of groups including 350.org, Avaaz, the Sierra Club, Climate Justice Alliance and the Service Employees International Union.
The march is the first in a series of events held around the world this week to shine a spotlight on global warming ahead of the U.N. summit Tuesday. President Obama and world leaders from government, finance and business will be at the U.N. to announce initiatives meant to move the world toward limiting global warming.
World leaders will gather on Tuesday for the U.N Summit. 125 nations will be represented. This is the first time in five years world leaders will meet to discuss climate change.
The U.N. summit aims to get world leaders to pledge emission cuts that could become part of a global agreement to be approved at U.N. climate talks next year in Paris.
Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver keynote remarks at the summit’s opening event. He will showcase climate action that the USA is taking at home and present his vision for advancing a global low carbon economy, his office said Sunday.
While there were plenty of people passionate about the growing effects of climate change, Indigenous people from all over the world were present as the first people affected from climate change. Many of them were victims of drillings on their lands.
As leaders also prepare for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples today and Tuesday, Patricia Gualing, a Kichwa woman from the Sarayaku community in Ecuador, spoke out about the dangerous of oil exploration.
“We have a proposal that’s based on scientists’ reports that say that 50 percent of known petroleum reserves around the world need to stay underground to avoid raising the earth’s temperature even more,” she said, referring to a figure from the International Energy Agency’s 2012 World Energy Investment Outlook. “So what are we waiting for? You can begin with us. We have been resisting for years, we don’t want petroleum exploration, and we don’t want more contamination of our lands.”
Many people are hoping that emission cuts will be acted upon or at least considered as leaders meet to find on ways to fight climate change.
SOURCE: USA Today, Al Jazeera | VIDEO CREDIT: News Inc.
