NEW YORK — Crying that the future and their lives depend on ending fossil fuels, tens of thousands of protesters kicked off Sunday a week in which leaders will once again attempt to more to curb climate change, caused mainly by coal, oil and natural gas.
However, protesters say this will not be enough. They aimed their anger directly at US President Joe Biden, urging him to stop approving new oil and gas projects, phase out current ones and declare a climate emergency with broader executive powers.
“We have the power of the people, the power you need to win this election,” said Emma Buretta, 17, of Brooklyn, and a member of the youth protest group “Fridays for Future.” “If you want to win in 2024, if you don’t want the blood of my generation on your hands, end fossil fuels,” she added.
The March to End Fossil Fuels featured politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and actors Susan Sarandon, Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, Kyra Sedgewick and Kevin Bacon. The real action on Broadway took place when protesters gathered in the street, pleading for a better, but not as hot, future. It served as the opening salvo to Climate Week in New York, where world leaders from business, politics and the arts come together to try to save the planet, highlighted by a special new United Nations summit , Wednesday.
However, many of the leaders of the countries that cause the most carbon pollution will not attend the UN gathering and hear the protesters’ plea. They will also not speak at the summit hosted by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, so only countries promising new concrete actions will be invited to speak.
Organizers estimate that 75,000 people participated in Sunday’s march.
Among them was 8-year-old Athena Wilson of Boca Raton, Florida. She and her mother Maleah flew from Florida just for Sunday’s protest.
“Because we care about our planet,” Athena said. I really want the Earth to feel better.”
People in the South, especially where the oil industry is located, and in the global South, “don’t feel heard,” said Alexandria Gordon, 23, from Houston. “It’s frustrating,” she said.
Protest organizers emphasized how disappointed they felt that President Biden, whom many of them supported in 2020, oversaw increased oil and fossil drilling.
“President Biden, our lives depend on your actions today,” said Sharon Lavigne, an environmental activist from Louisiana. “If you don’t stop fossil fuels, our blood is on your hands,” she said.
According to calculations by environmental activists, almost a third of oil and gas drilling planned in the world by 2050 is of American interests. Over the past 100 years, the United States has emitted more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other country, although China now emits more carbon pollution on an annual basis.
“You have to phase out fossil fuels to survive on our planet,” argued Jean Su, organizer of the march and director of energy justice at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Protesters and speakers spoke of the growing urgency and fear of the future. The actress known as V, formerly Eve Ensler, was set to perform the anthem “Panic” from her new climate change-focused musical, due out next year.
Climate protests have been happening around the world for several years, but this march seemed more imbued with a sense of urgency and frustration, said Anna Fels, a New Yorker who has been protesting and marching since the Vietnam War. . The march, unlike others, was also more clearly focused on fossil fuels.
The posters read “Fossil fuels are killing us”, “I want a future without fossils” and “Keep them in the ground”.
That’s because leaders don’t want to acknowledge the “elephant in the room,” said Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate. “The problem is that fossil fuels are to blame for the crisis. We can’t eat coal. We cannot drink oil and we cannot invest in fossil fuels,” she said.
However, oil and gas industry officials said they and their products were vital to the economy.
“We share the urgency of confronting climate change together and without delay. Yet doing so by eliminating America’s energy options is the wrong approach and would leave American families and businesses beholden to unstable foreign regions for more expensive and far less reliable energy,” said Megan Bloomgren, Vice President principal of the American Petroleum Institute.
2023-09-17 22:51:09
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