Thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities worldwide to demand urgent action on global warming as delegates continued their work at an international climate change conference to review and update the Kyoto protocol.
Police said about 7,000 people marched on Saturday in downtown Montreal -- some dressed up as polar bears. Five environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the Climate Crisis Coalition, delivered a petition signed by 600,000 Americans to the US consulate in Montreal urging US President George W. Bush and the US Congress to help slow global warming.
"We're worried about climate change, about ways of life in the Canadian Arctic disappearing," said Sarah Binder of Montreal's Urban Ecology Center.
PHOTO: AP
Organizers said 10,000 people marched through London, passing Prime Minister Tony Blair's home on Downing Street, where they delivered a letter demanding the government reaffirm its commitment to Kyoto with legally binding targets on emissions reductions.
Chanting and blowing whistles, the marchers denounced Blair and Bush for their perceived environmental failings. Some held banners depicting Bush as "Wanted -- for crimes against the planet" and advising "Ditch Blair, not Kyoto."
Canadian Inuit traveled to Montreal from the Arctic north to join the protest there. Leader Jose Kusugak said that he brought along hunters, trappers and elders to reassure them that people from the south were not indifferent to their plight.
"It was important to show there are a lot of people in the world who care," he said.
Canada's Environment Minister Stephane Dion, who is presiding over the 10-day UN Climate Change Conference in Montreal, also took part in the march and said final negotiations next week involving some 120 environment ministers and other government leaders would be crucial to improving the Kyoto agreement.
Bush has been widely criticized for pulling out of the treaty, which binds industrialized nations to lower greenhouse gas emissions. The US -- which spews out nearly 25 percent of the world's carbon emissions -- was the target of many demonstrators on Saturday.
At a protest in Boston, speakers called on Massachusetts to join with seven other Northeast states putting limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Governor Mitt Romney has not signed on because he is concerned that the pact could mean increased utility rates.
The agreement's benefits are numerous, said Marc Breslow, director of Massachusetts Climate Action Network, who estimated that about 60 people rallied at Cathedral of St. Paul, an Episcopal church at the foot of Beacon Hill.
"We won't lose our beaches," he said. "We won't lose our oak trees. We won't have more-intense storms."
Protests were expected in 32 countries, including Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Bangladesh, Brazil, Australia and South Africa.
In Washington, drivers of hybrid cars planned to rally around the White House. In New Orleans, residents intended to hold a "Save New Orleans, Stop Global Warming" party in the French Quarter.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS