在一個雲層很厚的星期天早上，數以千計的人們走上曼哈頓的街頭，就為了喚起人們對氣候變遷的注意。遊行中包含了許多的遊行團體、兩層樓高的人偶、各式各樣的標語。原住民團體、勞工團體、養蜂團體、甚至政治人物或是明星擁護團體等都在警方的看管下都參加了這場遊行。
其中一個男子拿著一個牌子，上面寫”GIVE A S**T(重視此事!!!!)” 。這樣的呈現方式也看到由非官方的力量帶動，在遊行中希望能喚起更多人對氣候變遷的重視，提醒他們未來的社會如何，其實就掌握在現在我們如何回應這些氣候變遷的議題，尤其是針對市政府官員。“最終人們總是把這些(對應氣候變遷的計畫案、修復計畫案)文件放在辦公室裡，之後忘記這些事情” Vernell Robinson這麼說。Robinson是Far Rockgaway, NY(2012年這區受到颶風摧毀)的居民。她說她對於政府感到十分憤怒，因為大部分政府原本承諾的重建根本到現在都還沒有完成。
“我們依然在受苦當中。政府根本就是放爛我們，現在就當作像是什麼都沒發生一樣。”Robinson 在提到重建位於Rockaway Beach區，負責運送Marcellus Shale 到 Brooklyn區的天然氣管線爆裂相關問題時這麼說到。
在這個週末(2014.9.21)裡，世界上有160個國家都舉辦了這場氣候變遷遊行，包含了英國、阿富汗到澳洲等國，其中紐約市是最大的遊行，估計吸引了將近310,000人參加。
“我們走向全球毀滅的時間已經非常近了，但我們還有一些機會防止地球一年暖化兩度以上” Sally Long 在紐約多所學校擔任財務主管。她拿著標語” Climate change is real, TEACH SCIENCE.(氣候變遷是真的在發生了! 教導你的孩子科學)”
遊行中也看得到各大學的學生穿著標語T恤，上面寫”喔~好熱喔~一定是空氣中的二氧化碳”。常出現在舊金山及歐克蘭遊行樂隊Brass Liberation Orchestra 也參加了這場遊行。從西維吉尼亞來的John Lozier自己一個人戴暴龍造型的帽子，一路打鼓打了好幾條街。他說他是為了幫自己心中的恐龍發聲，也藉此抗議化石燃料的問題。
環境鬥士Vandana Shiva說雖然許多氣候相關的國際協商失敗，例如2009年在丹麥哥本哈根讓聯合國對於氣候變遷的相關協商，但只要歐巴馬總統能做出改變，那麼就依然有希望。Vandana Shiva最主要反對在她的國家印度所進行的農作物基因改造及農業產業化等議題。
＂我對U.N.仍保持希望，但我認為大企業操縱著政府。哥本哈根的協商會破裂並不是因為U.N.，而是因為歐巴馬總統試圖要把五個不同的政府分開來然後下結論說他們已經達成協商，但事實上卻還在協商當中。＂
Shiva說她很想知道在本週一於華爾街進行的靜坐將會發生哪些事情。靜坐不像是這個遊行，並沒有通報紐約警察局，也因此他們預測會有人被逮捕。“大企業的貪婪已經造成氣候浩劫，也同時帶來許多暴力與打壓。”
Maikara Ropata是一位毛利族原住民，特別從紐西蘭來參加這場遊行。”當我聽到這場遊行時，就覺得哇塞，這場遊行會很盛大的。” Ropata擔心的則是目前正在紐西蘭沿岸鑽研深海石油的問題。這可能會導致類似2011年BP在墨西哥沿岸漏油的問題。她說”我們的食物都來自於海洋，如果有什麼類似的事情發生，那將會是無法補救的災難。”
其他議題例如過度開發山坡地、瀝青過度採挖、過度捕魚等都是這次遊行裡的相關重點。68歲的Maryan Dawn Skyweaver非裔美國人說像這樣大規模的使用地球資源都是起源於忘記了”平衡”的重要性。
“每件事情都有它的平衡點所在，而我們卻忘記了。如果我們不趕快記起來，那麼我們真的會有很多很多的問題。這個遊行正代表了我們正努力地找回那個平衡點。”
她指著身邊遊行的青少年說”像我這年紀有這樣認知的人長久以來不斷地推行者這樣的概念。現在終於年輕人也關注起同樣的議題。這是一個令人開心的好日子”
JL碎念：
其實這場遊行在世界各地都有很大的迴響(世界各地響應照片可以看這：http://goo.gl/RJXDzv)，看照片就看得出來了。然後，如果你google就會發現各國都有一些相關報導。說真的不算多。相關報導真的很少。這也是回應到了我成立這個部落格的初衷，我相信每個人都是一個媒體，也許沒有電視、報紙、大財團的力量大，但是我可以盡我小小的力，讓更多人知道：世界上各國有這麼多人都在關切環保的議題。
我們～一起為地球努力 好嗎?
原文在這裡：http://goo.gl/YSqOfW
On a cloud-heavy Sunday morning, hundreds of thousands of people snaked down Manhattan’s west side for a march calling attention to the impact of climate change. Dozens of marching bands, two-story-tall puppets and banners of all kinds flanked a diverse range of marchers. Indigenous groups, labor unions, beekeepers and students, as well as a smattering of celebrities and politicians clogged the march route for over six hours while police officers mostly looked on.
One man held a placard with “GIVE A S**T” inscribed in black marker. The sentiment proved to be the unofficial demand of the march: specifically that more people, especially the ones who hold political office, begin acting like the future of society depends on how they respond to the immediate climate change threat.
“At the end of the day, we put them in office, and we’ll take them out,” says Vernell Robinson, a resident of the Far Rockaway, a New York neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. She says she’s furious with local government. Most of her neighbors still haven’t seen the rebuilding that was promised by local officials after the storm.
“We’re still suffering. They’re leaving us here to rot. And now they’re deep into fracking, acting like it’s business as usual,” Robinson said, referring to the pipeline being built under Rockaway Beach which will carry natural gas from hydraulic fracturing operations in the Marcellus Shale to Brooklyn.
Climate marches stepped off in about 160 countries around the world this weekend, from the U.K. to Afghanistan to Australia, head of a United Nations summit on climate change beginning this week. The New York City march is the largest; an early headcount by organizers put the number of marchers at about 310,000 people.
“The clock is running fast towards planetary meltdown. There’s a short window to keep it warming less than two degrees,” said Sally Long, a financial aid director at several New York City schools. She held a sign that read, “Climate change is real, TEACH SCIENCE.”
Nearby, students wearing tee shirts from various U.S. universities chanted: “Ooo, it’s hot in here/Must be the carbon in the atmosphere.” The Brass Liberation Orchestra, a marching band that frequents political events in San Francisco and Oakland, California, blasted loopy, upbeat funk tunes. John Lozier, a West Virginia man with a Tyrannosaurus rex hat and a bass drum, pounded out a beat by himself a few hundred yards away. He said he was at the march to “get in touch with my inner dinosaur,” by protesting fossil fuels.
Failed international climate negotiations -- especially the 2009 talks in Copenhagen, Denmark -- hang over hopes for the upcoming U.N. deliberations. But Vandana Shiva, the environmental activist famous for speaking against genetically engineered crops and the brand of industrial agriculture practiced heavily in her home country of India, says she has some hope that this time will be different -- as long as President Obama changes his approach.
“I haven’t lost faith in the U.N. [but] I think corporations manipulate some governments too much,” Shiva said. “Copenhagen was a disaster not because of the U.N., but because of President Obama trying to separate five governments and say they came to a conclusion while everyone else was still negotiating.”
Shiva noted that she is interested to see what will happen at a sit-in planned to take over Wall Street on Monday. The sit-in, unlike the march, is not sanctioned by the NYPD. Organizers are predicting arrests at the event.
“The corporate greed that is giving us climate havoc is also giving us violence and oppression,” Shiva said, regarding the possibility that protesters will be arrested.
Maikara Ropata, an indigenous Maori woman, traveled from New Zealand for the climate events taking place this week. “When I heard about this march, I thought, ‘Wow, this is big,'" she said.
Ropata worries about current deep-sea oil drilling off the coast of New Zealand, and the possibility that a spill analogous to the 2011 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could happen in those waters. “We get our food out of the sea. If something happens, it’ll be like what happened in the Gulf--they won’t be able to cap it."
Mountaintop removal mining, tar sands pipelines and overfishing were all targets of protest throughout the march. Maryan Dawn Skyweaver, a 68-year-old woman and with Cherokee, Blackfoot, and African American heritage, says these massive-scale extraction operations are a symptom of forgetting “balance.”
“There’s a balance of all things, and we have forgotten it. And if we don’t remember it soon, we’ll be in trouble. But this march speaks to the fact that we’re trying to get back on track."
“This is part of the awakening people my age have been pushing for for a long time,” Skyweaver said, gestured to the throng of teenagers holding signs nearby. “Now we know that young people are really thinking. This is a glorious day for me.”
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