Thousands turn out for global climate protest 05 December 05

Apologies for doing this again, and please let me know if it’s unwelcome, but I’ve got a writeup of the London demo, including a summary of George Monbiot’s speech, on my blog. If you read it, please leave any comments about the issue or the day on Mark’s site, not mine!

http://deed.squarespace.com/

It was a great day, so wonderful to see so many people there. I really had the idea (I don’t know why) that there might only be a few hundred. So when, while waiting in Grosvenor Square, I saw the march arrive, and keep coming, and keep coming, and keep coming, I was absolutely overwhelmed. As a first step, this gives me real hope that we might be able to generate what we need – a large campaigning movement.

Congratulations and thanks must go to everyone at the Campaign Against Climate Change.

It was very tiny, organized by a grassroots org, & only a few people turned out, but they did a wonder parade of hybrid cars around the White House. I was in DC for an Anthro conf & presented on “GW: Fact & Fiction.”

RE the ocean conveyor slow down & greater hurricane season—as I recall, Dan sort of got it right in his engineering commonsense analysis this past summer. Too bad scientists & NOAA people aren’t thinking inside the box.

Great! What next!

we had a pretty niffty march in the end through the streets of brisbane. At first it didn’t seem like there would be many people but after a few terrific speeches from federal politicians the crowd had grown in size somewhat. we then marched through the city with colourful umbrellas painted with various climate change slogans to the beat of some fantstic drumming. there were some brilliant banners particularly focused on climate refugees and a number of people walking under or in boat like structures. calls were made to shame the australian government for their continued resistance to signing off on kyoto. in a rather depressing moment last week our environment minister declared that emissions targets have no place in post-kyoto climate agreements. How much media did other people get at their marches? I couldn’t seem to find much media comment on ours, just a few radio stories. Still was a great day!

Cheers

The London demo was very encouraging. There were many more marchers than the demo earlier this year. Something else that was very noticeable. The marchers were friendly, good humoured, relaxed, and despite the rain, seemed to be enjoying themselves. Some of the police smiled too and there seemed to be lots on push-bikes!

The contrast with the US embassy was stark. A cold, grey, austere, concrete monolith with no sign of human activity or feeling. And surrounded by heavy defences.

Douglas Coker

Your post and link is very useful. I’d especially wanted to hear Monbiot but the cold, damp (and my age I guess!) got to me and I left before he spoke.

Thanks

Douglas Coker

Thanks very much Douglas! Well, great news, broadcaster Xan Philips has the full audio of George Monbiot’s speech, and GM has given him permission to host it… Here’s the link- http://www.xan.co.uk/volume_38.php

I assure you it repays the effort of downloading! A powerful, thought-provoking talk.

for coverage of the various marches in different countries visit http://forum.campaigncc.org/ http://forum.campaigncc.org/?q=image/tid/27 for photos

I believe the number was around 10,000 in London .. 30,000 in Montreal! Yes it was a good day, especially when the Campaign against Climate Change crowd of helpers ended up cheering each other in the pub!

CCC-Scotland held a march in Edinburgh, around 400 people turned up to hear some great speakers and to make there own voices heard. For more infor check out the CCC-Scotland website:

http://climatechangecampaign.blogspot.com

The reason there were so many people at the London Demo is because Campaign against Climate Change have been working really hard all this year to boost the numbers of supporters and getting activists to bring coaches from all over the country … so there has been a lot of campaigning going on at a grassroots level. To become more active yourselves please go to: www.campaigncc.org/forum. Thanks.

Just curious because we didn’t seem to have much. There isn’t even much coverage of the meeting in montreal.

Cheers, Tara

The London climate march did not get much coverage as far as I could see. For one thing it had to compete with the funeral of George Best (famous footballer). BTW not to be confused with George Bush as one hapless radio announcer apparently did.

Climate change and Montreal have been well covered though. Bear in mind I concentrate on the Guardian and Independent newspapers and BBC Radio 4 and television.

This morning’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme had a series of reports from Montreal. I’m going to use their “listen again” facility to fully appreciate them.

Treat yourself to a sample and listen to Greg Nickels the Mayor of Seattle here http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/index.shtml

Douglas Coker

Hi I didn’t manage to get back to Reading in time to do the TV thing. But I am told we were about the 4th or 5th slot on the early evening news. As far as I could see in the Sunday papers it was only the Indipendent. They gave us page 6 and 7.

The Times did a confusing piece, contrasting scientific view points on CC. ie is it gong to be colder or hotter re, the Gulf Stream, that was about page 22 or 24.

Really anoyed with the Gaurdain group. They gave loads of support in the weeks before, however, the Observer didnt mention a thing. NICE.

Since then all they have done is ignore Montreal, allthough the Indi did something on Saturday. I delieve it was the lead story but didn’t get a chance to get my hands on it. Sorry.

Great fun at the march. Got recognised from Glen Eagles by the Rinkytink sound system. Opps, must make me a professional by now. LOL.

Best Ian.