Climate change activists plan Wall Street protest
Climate activists on Monday planned to flood Wall Street to protest what they say is corporate and economic institutions' role in the climate crisis. It comes a day after hundreds of thousands of activists participated in the People's Climate March through Manhattan warning that climate change is destroying the Earth.
Bird-shaped kites are held in the air as demonstrators make their way down Sixth Avenue during the People's Climate March, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014, in New York. The march, along with similar gatherings scheduled in other cities worldwide, comes two days before the United Nations Climate Summit, where more than 120 world leaders will convene for a meeting aimed at galvanizing political will for a new global climate treaty by the end of 2015.
Jason DeCrow/AP
New York
One day after a huge climate march in New York City, activists on Monday planned to flood Wall Street to protest what they say is corporate and economic institutions' role in the climate crisis.
The protesters, dressed in blue, scheduled a rally in Battery Park before marching to the financial district in Lower Manhattan, according to organizers of #FloodWallStreet.
Scheduled speakers at the rally include Canadian author-activist Naomi Klein, journalist Chris Hedges and San Francisco writer Rebecca Solnit. Environmentalist, activist and author Bill McKibben also was expected.
Organizers said in a press release that the sit-in aimed to disrupt business in the financial district by targeting "corporate polluters and those profiting from the fossil fuel industry."
"Two years ago, Superstorm Sandy literally flooded New York's financial district but it didn't faze Wall Street and their drive for the short term profits that flow from the cooking of the planet," Klein said in a statement. "Which is why we're going to flood them again."
Dressed in a green wig and superhero outfit, protester Jenna DeBoisblanc, an environmental activist from New Orleans, Louisiana, said at a rally in a park near Wall Street before the protest that those assembled were expecting arrests at the sit-in.
"I think arrests in particular are a very good way of conveying the gravity of an issue," she said. "If you're willing to risk arrest it certainly demonstrates that it's something very urgent."
On Sunday, tens of thousands of activists participated in the People's Climate March through Manhattan warning that climate change is destroying the Earth.
Organizers said more than 100,000 participated, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Evangeline Lilly. The Christian Science Monitor was on the scene:
The People’s Climate March, organized by an array of environmental, religious, and labor groups the past few months, was scheduled to coincide with the United Nations Climate Summit, in which nearly 100 heads of state, including President Obama, will discuss global carbon emissions and seek to create a framework for an international agreement at next year’s climate summit in Paris.
But environmental activists were stunned by both the size and energy of the raucous parade, which organizers say is the largest climate protest in history.
It was one of many demonstrations around the world urging policymakers to take quick action.