The usual honking taxis and crowded buses vacated the streets of New York City on Sep. 21 to make way for a movement that attracted attention for environmental activism on a global stage. At the People’s Climate March, dissatisfied civilians from all over the world demanded action against climate change. Groups carried signs and banners reading “Denial is not a climate policy” or “Don’t procrastinate- demonstrate” to express their frustration with the neglect with which global leaders have treated the climate issue.
The home base for the march was New York City, but the People’s Climate March was a worldwide movement composed of 2,646 events in 162 different countries. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, a group of children carried three signs that when put together read “Action Not Words” an apparent international slogan of the march. In NYC, the mobilization was divided into six main groups united by individual slogans. These ranged from “Forefront of Crisis, Forefront of Change,” which was composed of the people most directly affected by climate change (including indigenous populations and environmental justice communities) to “To Change Everything, We Need Everyone,” which contained the greatest diversity of representatives, from the LGBTQ community to international marchers. Participants in the march were given the freedom to choose the group to which they felt they belonged and were guided to assemble in set locations according to their affiliation. Group two, entitled “We Can Build the Future,” assembled by Central Park West, between 66th and 71st streets. The group included labor unions, public health representatives, families and college students.
Of the college students in attendance, many came from Conn. Students attended with school organizations, members of the New London community, or just went with friends. Conn and New London contributed two buses full of people to the march, but several students and their clubs transported themselves to NYC.
Charlie Massey ’18, marched with the CC Democrats and reported that the event was run efficiently and without conflict. He and the rest of the CC Dems walked in the second group, (the student section of the march), and said that their group was next to organizations from Yale and Princeton which carried large, seemingly professionally-made banners. Massey said “We wrote something like ‘Conn College supports climate awareness’ on the back of a piece of cardboard—so it was pretty rag-tag, but it was cool.”
Aimee Manderlink, another Conn freshman, also walked in the People’s Climate March, though she attended with a friend from outside the College. She admitted that she was unsure which section of the march she joined, but regardless, she felt connected to a huge movement: it was huge, with an estimated 400,000 people in attendance, 50,000 of whom were college students. Manderlink explained that she was impressed by the scale and centrality of the march, saying, “I thought we were just going to be walking through back roads, but we went through Times Square.” Despite the movement’s immensity, however, Manderlink expressed her surprise in the lack of awareness of some New Yorkers. “Even though it got a lot of publicity,” said Manderlink, “there were still people on the streets asking what [we] were marching for.” It seemed that everyone knew about the People’s Climate March except the people living near it.
In order to attract publicity for the movement and express their support, various big names were present at the People’s Climate March. Icons from pop culture, like Leonardo DiCaprio, to environmental activists, like Al Gore, came out to New York City walk, voice their support and take pictures. Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, attended the climate march, thus making his stance on climate change clear prior to the UN’s climate summit meeting, which occurred the following Tuesday.
The People’s Climate March did not provide a once-and-for-all solution, nor did it in any way conclude the growing movement to reduce the detriments of climate change. Instead, the march was closely followed the next day by Flood Wall Street, a large sit-in of the United States’ business capital that interrupted the typical conduction of business and acted as a sequel to the People’s Climate March. Both events directly preceded the UN Climate Summit meeting, at which countries declared their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon dependency. There, UN representatives agreed that they would compose a binding climate agreement in Paris in December of 2015 that will hold all UN members accountable for taking real action.
A diverse crowd of people with a shared vision made an astounding spectacle and loudly spoke their message but their work is far from being done. •
