Tomorrow, Sunday September 21, I will be attending the People's Climate March in New York City. It's being billed as the "largest climate march in history." It takes place a couple days before world leaders meet for one day about climate change at the United Nations, at Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's request. It's the highest level meeting on climate change since COP19 last year and before the upcoming COP20 in Lima, Peru in December.
As an avid cyclist and bicycle-friendly streets proponent, I will be using pedal power as my means of transportation to get to and from the march from Brooklyn. Joining me will be my parents (on their bicycles) and friends. We'll likely march with the Bike Bloc.
I think it's important to take part in this march. We've all been experiencing the effects of climate change and global weirding with weather patterns. Some parts of the world have been affected more directly than others. But for those of us most fortunate to see the least effects so far, I think it's becoming more and more of a reality for folks now that weather patterns have regularly been so weird and extreme. Just in recent memory, think the arctic polar cold of last winter that went on for months. Think of Hurricane (Superstorm) Sandy of 2012. This is the future -- in the present. And it will become more and more regular... if we don't take immediate action.
So all in all, I think it's a good thing that the People's Climate March is happening. And that the goal is to get as many people involved (mainstream/diverse groups). However, this past week, I did think it was odd to see tons of advertising for the march on the subway. For more along those lines, check out Arun Gupta's piece in Counterpunch for an excellent and healthy critique of what appears to be top-down organizing and the co-opting of the march and the movement: "How the People’s Climate March Became a Corporate PR Campaign." If anything, it will give you a broader perspective. Anyway, it's still good to get out there. So, see you in the streets.
