Saturday, September 24, 2011

Sept 24th Moving Planet Rallies

Moving Planet Rallies Prompt Global Climate Action
People formed a human wind turbine at the rally in Paris (Photos courtesy Moving Planet.org)

September 24, 2011 (ENS) - More than 2,000 "Moving Planet" clean-energy demonstrations took place today around the world - at UN Headquarters in New York, in all 50 U.S. states and in 175 countries.

"The planet has been stuck for too long with governments doing nothing about the biggest problem we've ever faced," said Bill McKibben, founder of the nonprofit 350.org, the international climate campaign coordinating the demonstrations.

The campaign is named after the safe upper concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million. Right now, the atmosphere contains 392 ppm of the greenhouse gas.

"This is the day when people will get the Earth moving, rolling towards the solutions we need," McKibben said.

In the United States, there are more than 700 events in all 50 states. Highlights include a 2,000 person bike ride from Boulder to Denver, Colorado; a 5,000 person rally in Seattle with Mayor Mike McGinn; a massive bicycle parade in San Francisco; and a rally at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

At the UN rally, speakers included Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan of the Maldives, a Pacific island nation at risk of becoming uninhabitable due to coastal erosion and sea level rise.

Also on the podium at the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Plaza was NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, Laura Flanders of GritTV, and a delegation of indigenous leaders from across the United States.

In Boston, 3,000 people marched and rally at Columbus Waterfront Park. read more>>>

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