Tens of thousands of people joined one of the biggest global days of climate change activism yesterday, from Sydney to Berlin, to put pressure on world leaders to unite in fighting global warming at a summit in Paris.
About 20,000 pairs of shoes were laid out in the Place de la Republique in the French capital, from high-heels to boots, to symbolize absent marchers after attacks by Islamic State militants killed 130 people on Nov. 13 and led France to ban a protest that was meant to be at the heart of the global action.
Organizers said the Vatican sent a pair of shoes on behalf of Pope Francis.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
One activist, dressed in white as an angel with large wings, held a sign saying “coal kills.”
More than 2,000 events were being held in cities including Sydney, Berlin, London, Sao Paulo and New York, making it perhaps the biggest day of climate action in history on the eve of the Paris conference which runs from today through Dec. 11.
In Sydney, about 45,000 people are estimated to have marched through the central business district toward the Opera House. Among them Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who tweeted it was the largest climate march ever held in the harbor city.
Protesters held placards reading: “There is no Planet B,” and “Say no to burning national forests for electricity.”
US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are to be among more than 140 leaders attending the start of the summit.
In Hong Kong, two protesters carried styrofoam polar bears holding signs reading “homeless and hungry” and “please help” because of melting Arctic ice.
In Seoul, hundreds of protesters banged drums and danced.
Activists in France scaled back their plans when the government imposed a state of emergency after the Paris attacks and banned the march in Paris on security grounds.
However, hundreds of people formed a kilometres-long human chain in Paris yesterday to protest the “climate state of emergency” along the Boulevard Voltaire in eastern Paris, breaking the chain in front of the Bataclan concert hall where 90 people were massacred in the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks,
“This is a moment for the whole world to join hands,” said Iain Keith, campaign director for Avaaz, one of the organizers.
Alix Mazounie of French Climate Action Network said the activists reckoned a human chain would not violate the state of emergency.
“This is not civil disobedience,” she said.
The chain would break, for instance, wherever it crossed a road to avoid disrupting traffic.
Many environmental activists want a phase-out of fossil fuels and a shift to 100 percent renewable-energy sources by 2050.
Some marches were held on Friday and Saturday, from Melbourne to Edinburgh.
“Don’t be a fossil fool,” one Australian banner said.
In the biggest single march on climate change ever staged, last year organizers estimated 310,000 people took part in New York.
On Saturday, faith groups delivered a series of petitions signed by 1.8 million people urging stronger action, collected on pilgrimages to Paris.
“The time for talking is long over,” said Yeb Sano of the Philippines, who walked 1,500km from Rome.
Additional reporting by AFP
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