On the Streets of Copenhagen for Climate Justice

by: Karen Orenstein

Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 14:45

This post is part of Friends of the Earth sponsoring Open Left. Please check out the Friends of the Earth website here.

Along with Natasha, who is also in Copenhagen, Friends of the Earth will be blogging live from the Climate Change conference on Open Left over the next two weeks--make sure to keep coming back for more first-hand reporting!--Chris

***

More than 100,000 activists from all over the world took action on the streets of Copenhagen Saturday.

Several different morning marches, including Friends of the Earth's Flood for Climate Justice featuring 10,000 global citizens from countries ranging from Denmark and the UK to Malawi, Uruguay and Sri Lanka, fed into the main march in the afternoon. I and the other Friends of the Earth activists came dressed in blue rain ponchos. Many had their faces painted the color of the ocean. We held signs demanding climate justice and an end to carbon offsetting. Here's some video of the march put together by our Friends of the Earth U.S. contingent (including me):

Despite the cold, there was a lot of excitement in the crowd, and it felt moving and empowering to be part of this march -- a reminder that, regardless of the outcome of the negotiations inside the Bella Center, there is a growing movement for climate justice among activists that can hopefully produce truly just and sustainable solutions to the climate crisis in the future.

Amid the chants and signs, "climate doctors" carried planet earth on a stretcher -- attached to an IV and a stethoscope in an attempt to treat our climate emergency. Activists dressed as Wall Street traders, with sinister faces and flashy suits, tried but failed to sell the crowd on carbon derivatives trading.

The energy (clean, of course) of our climate justice movement was electric.

The vast vast majority of marchers were peaceful, something that might not have been apparent from reports in the media.

After the marches joined, the combined 100,000 marched to the official United Nations climate conference center on the outskirts of the city. Negotiators in the conference halls gathered around televisions to watch the events outside, keenly aware that our calls for real action and a fair outcome were reverberating throughout the world.

For some more inspiring footage of the growing climate justice movement, here's another video of the "flood" from Young Friends of the Earth Europe: