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A WEEKEND OF PROTESTS
Posted by Rose Braz
December 14, 2009, 12:17 p.m.
Over the weekend, church bells rang across the globe at 3:50 p.m. in their respective time zones, up to 100,000 people marched through the streets of Copenhagen and about 1,000 were detained, and here in San Francisco, a soggy, stalwart band of Center supporters, along with Organizing for America volunteers, Greenpeace, and the Mobilization for Climate Justice, came together under a single banner: WE NEED A REAL DEAL IN COPENHAGEN NOW!
What’s a real deal? One that’s ambitious and grounded in science, and that means no more than 350 ppm of CO2. One that’s just and fair, and that means nations largely responsible for carbon pollution need to take the lead in curbing that pollution and cleaning up the mess. And one that’s binding, meaning political promises without legally binding commitments won’t fly.
Before our vigil in front of San Francisco’s City Hall, we had meetings with the staff of Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. We delivered a Center petition with nearly 30,000 signatures on it calling for 350 ppm, maintaining all of the Clean Air Act’s capacity to curb carbon pollution, and eliminating or greatly reducing offsets.
We also delivered a letter from nearly 100 organizations supporting the Center and 350.org’s petition to the Environmental Protection Agency to cap carbon pollution at no more than 350 ppm under the Clean Air Act’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards program. If you belong to an organization, please consider asking your organization to sign on!
From the Senate offices, we marched through the constant drizzle to City Hall, passing several painfully cute holiday displays of polar bears as we went. These holiday depictions could soon be the only polar bears left on the planet if we don’t translate our symbolic love of the bears into concrete action to save their lives. Let’s keep up the pressure for a real deal in Denmark.
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| Brendan Cummings as Frostpaw the polar bear at Copenhagen protest. Photo by Kassie Siegel. |
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Next post – Chaos in Copenhagen
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