The Peoples climate change march, on the MountainKeeper bus from Liberty NY to NYC and the .. Thanks to CatskillMountainkeeper.org.
http://bluewizardsblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/climateblackboard.jpg
[One of the better display/signs in the march.]
It started at 7 am, on the bus from Liberty NY to NYC.. Took about 1 hours to West 86th street where most of the buses in were parked. We walked from there to Central Park West, and 59th st, or Columbus Circle. Waited 2 hours in the march lineup as more and more people and groups came.
We were with the Anti FRACKING contingent, probably several hundred or more people and groups from all over , international.
We waited in line at 86 (cross street), 81 to 79th. Stayed with the Mountain keeper, group from my country and we all got along. Mostly older (than 50 )crowd, a nice group of younger girls dressed to kill and stun. [ :) ]
On the heels of this, or maybe because of this , the Rockefeller family foundation, like many more now is Divesting of all fossil fuel investments. In a Huffington Post article, it reads, "The fossil fuel divestment movement has gained many other high-profile supporters in recent months, including actor Mark Ruffalo.
"It's a snowballing movement," Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, told USA Today.According to the Washington Post, the Rockefeller s plan to first divest from coal and tar-sands mining"
(http://peoplesclimate.org/lineup/"; which separated by march routes the major groups of the March from 86th St. down to 59th st and Central Park East.
Later the march was to go to 34th st, and disperse. Due to the size of the March (over 310,000)"we were asked to disperse early, and our group, the Anti Fracking contingent dispersed at West 42nd and then down to W. 22nd and our bus.
Our Anti Fracking contingent, which included, filmmaker and upstate NY anti Fracking activists, Josh Fox of 'Gasland' and 'Gasland II', actor/activist Mark Ruffalo, who lives and has a farm in my own county of Sullivan in Calicoon, NY. I was lucky to meet Josh Fox in person, and saw, Zepher Teachout, Progressive Democratic challenger in the recent primary to Gov. Cuomo.
Moving among the marchers a few hours later, I was able to see many of the groups, flying dirigibles, and other 'flying' things, as well as the diverse groups, including, 'Veterans for Peace', various Socialist groups, and some I couldn't even identify.
Democracy Now hostied a 3 hour special on her program interviewing many of the speakers and politicians, activists, among whom were Bernie Sanders, Robert Kennedy Jr., Bill McKibben.
I have been in many marches and protests in my time, against war, for LGBT Civil rights, Occupy Wall street, at Zuccotti Park and beyond, but this is the biggest march I can remember since the 1960s, and I am glad to have been a part of it.
The debate' about Climate change, human caused IS over. If you believe Science, and you believe in the scientific methods and that over 97 -- 99 % of the worlds leading scientific groups and climate specialists support and WARN us, that we might just be past the 'point of no return' in this, and Change in the form of fast melting Ice sheets from Greenland to Antarctica, the Permafrost in Siberia to Alaska, and Rising sea levels , as well, the extreme climate changes in our own lives, in the past 30 years, witnessed by more and bigger and more destructive Hurricanes, Massive storms (recently on the East coast, Irene -- 2011, Sandy 2012)"and much worse to come, EVEN if we can muster all nations now and especially at the 2016 Climate Summit.
The Warnings have been ongoing since before the 1960s, and now ARE our Reality.
From, an article, 'The Climate Misinformation Nation' , 5/16/2012, in The Berkeley Blog: Clouding the air
Why then does the climate change "debate" continue? There seem to be a few factors at play:
The intense polarization of our political parties, with environmentalism tagged as a Democratic issue, even when a healthy number of Republicans support clean energy;
Mainstream media's bias towards the debate format, which lends disproportionate air time to climate change deniers.Lack of clear information and reporting on the scientific consensus that climate change is real and that humans are a major contributor.
Prioritization of economic issues over environmental issues and the public perception that environmental regulation hurts job growth.
In the digital age, easy access to authorship, strong trends towards personalization in media consumption, and instantaneous dissemination of information -- whether accurate or not.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
