The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit global network comprising 3.5 million climate activists, was one of the many organizations present at the march in New York City today.
We are mobilizing around the summit to leverage national and international pressure to demand leaders change course.
This is a critical moment for mass mobilization on fossil fuels that could ignite bigger and bolder climate action.
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Here is a tweet by Oil Change International of the various climate change marches that were staged around the world this week, including today’s rally in New York City.
This is a big, beautiful climate movement & we’re calling on world leaders to #EndFossilFuels NOW. No more talk, we need action!
This week by the numbers:
— Oil Change International (@PriceofOil) September 17, 2023
600,000 people.
700 actions.
65 countries.
All 7 continents.
THIS. IS. INCREDIBLE.
But numbers don't do it justice. This is a big, beautiful climate movement & we're calling on world leaders to #EndFossilFuels NOW. No more talk, we need action! pic.twitter.com/NAWdoZQDj4
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V, the author of The Vagina Monologues formerly known as Eve Ensler, announced that she is working on a musical about the climate crisis.
She and three cast members previewed a song from the show called Panic. “We want you to panic / We want you to act / You stole our future / And we want it, we want it back.”
Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues, announced that she is working on a musical about the climate crisis. She and three cast members previewed a song from the show called "Panic." pic.twitter.com/L6x4LRnSm9
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 17, 2023
This post was amended on 18 September 2023 to correct the author’s name.
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“Don’t let the cynics win. The cynics want us to think that this isn’t worth it. The cynics want us to believe that we can’t win. The cynics want us to believe that organizing doesn’t matter, that our political system doesn’t matter, that our economy doesn’t matter,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told a crowd of cheering protestors.
“We’re here to say that we organize out of hope, we organize out of commitment, we organize out of love, we organize out of the beauty of our future. We will not give up! We will not let go! We will not allow cynicism to to prevail! We will not allow our vision of a collaborative economy, of dignity for working people, of honoring the Black, brown, Indigenous, white working class! We will not give up and that is what we are here to do today!” she added.
“The United States continues to be approving record number of fossil fuel leases and we must send a message, right here today – that has got to end!”
Earlier this month, AOC spoke to the Guardian and said that “there’s a very real danger here,” in reference to the presidential 2024 elections and the climate crisis.
crowd LOSING it for @AOC pic.twitter.com/8OIAx62wgS
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 17, 2023
@AOC passionately addresses the crowd at the #EndFossilFuels rally in New York City pic.twitter.com/EOIrtQ8HMW
— Aliya Uteuova (@aliyaute) September 17, 2023
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AOC addresses crowd of climate activists in New York City 'We must be too big and too radical to ignore'
The crowd cried out in cheers for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who thanked them for showing up and highlighting the urgency of the climate crisis.
“This issue is the issue, one of the most important issues of our time,” she said, adding: “We must be too big and too radical to ignore.”
Climate action requires a democratic restructuring of the economy, she said.
“What we’re not gonna do is go from oil barons to solar barons,” she told the crowd.
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Here are more images coming through the newswires from the march:
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World leaders have ‘forgotten’ responsibility to Mother Earth
Veteran Indigenous organizer Tom Goldtooth, who is executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, attended the march. “I’m here at the request of spiritual authorities within our Indigenous network,” he said.
“They said that this United Nations secretary general’s summit on climate ambition has no spiritual soul to it – that the world leaders have forgotten what the responsibility is to understand the sacredness of Mother Earth.”
He decried world leaders’ focus on technological solutions like geoengineering, as well as carbon offset markets, which studies show often do not result in lowered emissions.
“We’re here to renew not only our relationship but humanity’s relationship to building sustainable communities based upon regenerative economy, living economy, not a fossil fuel economy,” he said.
Tom Goldtooth of @IENearth said he is here "at the request of spiritual authorities within our indigenous network."
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 17, 2023
"They that this United Nations Secretary General's Summit on Climate ambition has no spiritual soul to it," he said. pic.twitter.com/buNgi3dBCq
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“The fight for the planet is not a personal issue, it’s a collective issue,” said Grant Miner, a graduate student representing the labor contingent with the Student Workers of Columbia University. “The economy that we have now is structured around killing the planet for profit.”
“We’re asking Biden to divest fossil fuels,” said Sincere Cheong, who marched alongside thousands of other people. “The world is being destroyed and if we don’t cut back right now we won’t be able to limit the global warming to 1.5 degrees.”
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Tens of thousands march in New York City to protest fossil fuels
Tens of thousands of people in New York City have kicked off a week of demonstrations seeking to end the use of coal, oil and natural gas blamed for climate change.
“This is an incredible moment,” said Jean Su of Center for Biological Diversity, who helped organize the mobilization.
Tens of thousands of people are marching in the streets of New York because they want climate action, and they understand Biden’s expansion of fossil fuels is squandering our last chance to avoid climate catastrophe.
Su said the action was the largest climate protest in the US since the start of the pandemic, with organizers estimating around 75,000 protestors taking to the streets in New York City.
She added:
This also shows the tremendous grit and fight of the people, especially youth and communities living at the frontlines of fossil fuel violence, to fight back and demand change for the future they have every right to lead.
In addition to celebrities and lawmakers, kids from across the country as well as elderly people showed up at the protests, waving climate signs and chanting alongside event organizers.
New York’s Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who previously championed the Green New Deal alongside Senator Bernie Sanders, is also expected to address the crowd later this afternoon.
Sunday’s demonstration comes ahead of the the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, which the UN secretary general, António Guterres, says will focus on on bold new climate pledges.
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In its citations for its climate journalists of the year, Covering Climate Now said:
Manka Behl of the Times of India was praised by judges for reports “from the frontlines of the crisis in one of the world’s most climate-important countries” and for her interviews with leaders.
Damian Carrington of the Guardian was credited for science-based reporting that “explains that politics and corporate power, not a lack of green technologies, are what block climate progress”, and cited for leading a reporting team on investigating “carbon bombs” and super-emitting methane leaks.
Amy Westervelt was described as a prolific, multiplatform reporter for Critical Frequency whose work exposes how fossil fuel companies continue to mislead the public and policymakers alike.
“Every news outlet on earth can learn from the engaged, hard-hitting journalism that Manka, Damian and Amy bring to the climate story,” said Mark Hertsgaard, the executive director of Covering Climate Now. “It’s reporting like this that arms the public with the power that knowledge gives.”
The awards also recognized six Special Honors winners for “rigorous investigative reports, eye-opening exposes of climate injustice, and much-needed analyses of climate solutions”:
The Power of Big Oil – a three part documentary by PBS’s Frontline
BP Paid Rural Mexicans a “Pittance” for Wall Street’s Favorite Climate Solution – Bloomberg
Barbados Resists Climate Colonialism in an Effort to Survive the Costs of Global Warming – ProPublica and the New York Times Magazine
Inside Somalia’s Nightmare Drought – Vice News
On the Green Fence – Deutsche Welle
The Case for the Climate – Al Jazeera English
Climate journalism awards announced this week
Covering Climate Now, the global journalism collaboration, is announcing its media awards this week at a time when audiences need to know how and why “the planet is on fire” and what can be done, judges said.
CCN’s three climate journalists of the year for 2023 are Damian Carrington of the Guardian, Manka Behl of the Times of India and Amy Westervelt, the founder of the Critical Frequency podcast network.
Naomi Klein, the international bestselling author, won in the commentary category, while Ishan Kukreti of the Indian non-profit Scroll.in won for long-form writing.
Covering Climate Now is a global collaboration involving some 600 news outlets with a reach of more than 2 billion people, and its media awards program was launched three years ago to spread standards of excellence in climate journalism.
This year’s winners were selected from a list of finalists from more than 1,100 entries from 29 countries, and chosen by more than 100 journalists.
Children showed up in droves for the march to end fossil fuels.
“We’re here today because our planet deserves a future,” Ida, 12, said.
Children showed up in droves for the March to End Fossil Fuels.
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 17, 2023
"We're here today because our planet deserves a future," Ida, 12, said. pic.twitter.com/Z2EWmhqsmn
Gus, a six-year-old, travelled from Boston for the march with his mother, Laura. “We’re here to end fossil fuels … so we can stop climate change,” he said.
Aviva, a seven-year-old Brooklynite who attended the march with her mom and sister, spoke into the megaphone. “Hey hey, ho,” she shouted, as the crowd responded: “Fossil fuels have got to go!”
Aviva, a 7 year old Brooklynite who attended the march with her mom and sister, spoke into the megaphone.
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 17, 2023
"Hey hey, ho," she shouted, as the crowd responded, "fossil fuels have got to go!" pic.twitter.com/BOinL3gXlU
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As the climate rally in New York City continues, climate activists in Germany sprayed orange paint on to Berlin’s popular Brandenburg Gate on Sunday in attempts to call on the German government to stop using fossil fuels.
“The protest makes it clear: it is time for a political change,” the climate activist group the Last Generation said in a statement, the Associated Press reports.
“Away from fossil fuels – towards fairness,” it added.
The Associated Press reports that police have blocked the area around the historic gate and confirmed that they have detained 14 activists that are affiliated with the Last Generation.
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Mentions of gas stoves are emerging as a theme among the many signs protesters are holding up at the march to end fossil fuels.
This April, New York became the first US state to ban gas stoves in new residential building construction as research emerged about its dangers for human health.
Gas stoves are in protesters mind today in NYC. This April, NY State became the first state to ban gas stoves in new residential building constructions pic.twitter.com/yu1HKuoxr0
— Aliya Uteuova (@aliyaute) September 17, 2023
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At the march, the Rev Lennox Yearwood, head of the Hip Hop Caucus, likened today’s climate movement to the US fight for racial justice.
“We’re at our lunch counter moment for the 21st century,” he said.
A native of Louisiana, he said he was excited to see demonstrators support environmental justice activists’ fight to end petrochemical buildout in the south-west US.
“We need to end fossil fuels in all forms,” he said.
Protesters chanted: “We are unstoppable, another world is possible.”
Others sang Leonard Cohen’s Anthem: “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
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Here is video by the Guardian’s visual reporter Aliya Uteuova on the fossil fuels march in New York City this afternoon.
The activists will be marching to the United Nations ahead of the UN Climate Ambition Summit that is set to take place in a few days.
Thousands of protesters in #NYC are starting their March to #EndFossilFuel - destination United Nations pic.twitter.com/EWCZSkdlFX
— Aliya Uteuova (@aliyaute) September 17, 2023
Veteran environmental activist Bill McKibben travelled to New York City to attend the march.
“I think it’s a real restart moment after the pandemic for the big in-the-streets climate movement,” he said. “It’s good to see people get back out there.”
The crowd, he said, reflected the diversity of New York City.
“I’m glad to see there’s a lot of old people like me here,” said McKibben, who founded Third Act, an activist group aimed at elders. “We’ll be marching in the back because we’re slow!”
Environmentalist and writer @billmckibben marching alongside protesters at the #EndFossilFuel in New York pic.twitter.com/rR4uxo0mO4
— Aliya Uteuova (@aliyaute) September 17, 2023
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Climate scientist Peter Kalmus at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab also spoke at the press conference, saying that he has two kids in high school and that he’s “terrified for their future”.
“I’m terrified for my future right now,” he added.
“We are so clearly in a fucking climate emergency. Why won’t Biden declare it?” he said.
now @ClimateHuman says he has two kids in high school. "I'm terrified for their future - I'm terrified for MY future right now."
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 17, 2023
"We are so clearly in a fucking climate emergency. Why won't Biden declare it?" pic.twitter.com/HLUutfwG4c
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Actress Susan Sarandon on NYU students' fossil fuel divestment: "You guys give me hope"
Actor and climate activist Susan Sarandon opened her speech by congratulating the students of New York University on the news of their university divesting from fossil fuels after years of pressure, as the Guardian first reported last week.
Addressing the crowd, she said, “You guys give me hope,” adding: “What we have to do is take responsibility and press those that are at the top to finally step up.”
@SusanSarandon at the #EndFossilFuels did a shout out to students from NYU who recently won a major fight by getting the largest public university to divest from fossil fuels
— Aliya Uteuova (@aliyaute) September 17, 2023
As reported by @dharnanoor pic.twitter.com/Feir2o6UrM
For the full story on the Guardian’s report of NYU’s divestment from fossil fuels, click here:
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Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York led the crowd in chanting: “Climate justice now.”
“We are the revolution,” he said, adding: “It’s going to be our love, our heart, our vision that rebuilds America and saves it from itself.”
He railed against US subsidies to oil and gas companies, as well as the nation’s investments in the military.
“We continue to give almost a trillion dollars a year to our military-industrial complex, which is the number one contributor to carbon emissions in the world,” he said.
@JamaalBowmanNY : "We continue to give almost a trillion dollars a year to our military industrial complex, which is the number one contributor to carbon emissions in the world." pic.twitter.com/kI7IPTAEt6
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 17, 2023
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Youth climate activist Vanessa Nakate: "We shouldn't allow corporations to have the license to destroy our lands"
“This is unfair. This is wrong. And this is unjust,” said Vanessa Nakate a climate activist from Uganda.
When we say that we want climate justice. We’re not just talking about transitioning to solar panels. We are talking about leaving no one behind when you’re talking about addressing the injustices that come with the climate crisis.
We shouldn’t allow corporations to have the license to destroy our lands, to destroy the air we breathe and to poison the water.
Vanessa Nakate speaking at the #EndFossilFuels March “The message is listen to the communities that are on the frontlines of the climate crisis” pic.twitter.com/psOTL61DJQ
— Aliya Uteuova (@aliyaute) September 17, 2023
Last September, Nakate spoke to the Guardian on her climate fight, saying: “Africa is on the frontlines of the climate crisis but it’s not on the front pages of the world’s newspapers. Every activist who speaks out is telling a story about themselves and their community, but if they are ignored, the world will not know what’s really happening.”
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New York state senator Zellnor Myrie spoke about the oil industry’s attempts to sow doubt about climate science:
We need to acknowledge they lie to the public, lie to investors and confuse the conversation.
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“This isn’t just about climate action,” Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity said at the press conference.
She added: “This is getting to the culprit of the climate emergency, which is burning fossil fuels.
“President Biden, we need you to still step through those doors and to actually commit to no new fossil fuels because that’s the only way we are going to survive.”
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UN comissioner for human rights: "We are subsidizing what is destroying us"
Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and the UN high commissioner for human rights, is at the march’s press conference.
“I’m here as chair of the elders, but I’m also here as a grandmother and angry granny because we are subsidizing what is destroying us,” she said, adding: “Our house is burning as Greta Thunberg said, so the elders strongly support phasing out fossil fuel and incentivizing clean energy.”
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Sharon Lavigne, director of Rise St James, an environmental justice organization based in the notoriously polluted region known as “Cancer Alley”, laid out the activists’ asks at a press conference held by Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity ahead of the march.
“We demand that [Joe Biden] stop all new fossil fuel approvals, phase out existing fossil fuels and declare a climate emergency,” she said.
If the president doesn’t phase out fossil fuels, she said, “our blood will be on your hands.”
Sharon Lavigne, director of RISE St. James, an environmental justice organization based in the notoriously polluted region known as "cancer alley," said if Biden doesn't phase out fossil fuels, "our blood" is on his hands pic.twitter.com/zS7plcQmRM
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 17, 2023
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At the march, Eagle Woman/Kandi White, who traveled here from North Dakota with the Indigenous Environmental Network, said:
“A lot of our native people are here today because as has been the case for over 500 years, we’ve had to hold the line in the protections of the fight of our earth.”
“The resources that we should be most concerned [about] are not oil, coal and gas. They are the air we need to breathe, the water we need to drink,” she added.
Eagle Woman/Kandi White came to the #EndFossilFuels from North Dakota with the @IENearth pic.twitter.com/LwKtA7U6A3
— Aliya Uteuova (@aliyaute) September 17, 2023
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Here is what a few youth climate activists and organizers told the Guardian’s fossil fuels and climate reporter Dharna Noor ahead of today’s march:
Bree Campell, a 17-year-old organizer with Fridays for Future NYC, said:
Next year, myself and millions of young people will be newly eligible to vote – and climate is our number one priority.
People are expected to travel from far and wide to attend Sunday’s march.
“As an 11-year-old girl living with asthma in south-west Louisiana, I’ve experienced first-hand the harmful effects of air pollution on my health,” said Kamea Ozane, an 11-year old from Sulphur, Louisiana – part of the notoriously heavily polluted “Cancer Alley” region – who will attend the march with her mother, Roishetta Sibley Ozane.
She added:
Every child deserves clean air to breathe and a future free from the dangers of fossil fuels.
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Thousands expected to march in New York City in call to end fossil fuels
Good morning, blog readers.
Thousands of activists are expected to show up in New York City on Sunday for the march to end fossil fuels. The protest will begin at 1pm ET and a rally headlined by New York’s Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is expected to begin at 3pm ET.
The demonstration will fall days before the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, which the UN secretary general, António Guterres, says will focus on on bold new climate pledges.
On Friday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden was not currently scheduled to attend the UN climate summit – a decision that is “unacceptable”, said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups organizing the march.
She added:
The time is now for Biden to lead on the world stage, and show he means it when he calls climate change the existential threat to humanity.
More than 650 global climate actions took place earlier this week and more are expected in the coming days. Youth-led organizations, including Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future, played leading roles in organizing the mobilizations.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates.
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