By Matthew Simon ‘25 Tens of thousands of activists and concerned citizens joined protests around the world this fall, calling for an end to fossil fuel burning. "The burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of climate change, and I am encouraged that protests calling for action against fossil fuels are happening around the world," said junior Oren Goldman.
The protests, organized by many different youth groups and climate organizations, took place in dozens of countries worldwide, from Austria to America, India to Indonesia, France to the Philippines and Senegal to South Korea. In Quezon City, activists lay down in front of the Philippine Department of Energy and Natural Resources. In Vienna, thousands of high-school students staged a sit-in on the steps of the Austrian parliament building. In Stockholm, chants of “climate justice!” could be heard at an official event marking the 50th anniversary of the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf’s coronation, which was happening the same day. In the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, activists marched against the expansion of oil drilling in the region, especially the new East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), currently under construction. “I am always so inspired and motivated when I see the images and videos of so many people, from disparate countries and communities all across the globe, advocating for climate justice and climate action,” said junior Shayne Cytrynbaum. “Even when I am feeling desperate about the current political and financial situation in relation to the climate crisis, I think back to our mass social movements and I remember that ultimately having enough people out in the street can spur an unlimited potential for action, as long as we activists remain dedicated and vigilant,” Shayne said. In New York City, an estimated 50,000 to 75,000 people attended the “March to End Fossil Fuels” in Midtown Manhattan on September 17, in what has been described as the biggest rally in the city since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. More dedicated activists protested at major banks and financial institutions known for funding fossil fuel projects, including the Federal Reserve Bank, BlackRock, and CitiBank. Symbolic sites targeted for protest also included the Museum of Modern Art (over its ties to fossil fuel investor KKR) and Zuccotti Park, which was famously the starting point of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 and is also partially owned by fossil fuel bank Goldman Sachs. In a speech at the March to End Fossil Fuels, progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told the crowd that the climate movement must become “too big and too radical to ignore,” a common adage in social movement organizing. She said, “We are all here for one reason: to end fossil fuels around the planet… And the way we create urgency is to have people around the world in the streets.” To publicly demonstrate the wide support for stronger climate action, organizers worked to make the march as intersectional and inclusive as possible. The march included rabbis and imams, high schoolers and seniors, healthcare workers, labor union organizers, scientists, Indigenous activists, immigrant rights advocates and even an old school bus repurposed into a “dance hub.” “The wide variety of people who attended the March Against Fossil Fuels demonstrates how strong the climate justice cause is and how many people it excites,” said junior Rachel Nadelmann. “Everyone in their life has been or will be impacted by climate change, and so the fact that people are coming together to show the urgency and validate the climate crisis’s existence is remarkable.” Messages in speeches, chants, and signs explicitly tied the climate crisis to issues of racism, classism, ableism, and colonialism, calling for a Green New Deal to try to address these problems more holistically. The New York City march ended near the UN Headquarters Building, where world leaders gathered that week for the United Nations General Assembly meeting when most of the world’s leaders traveled into the city. Protests have been a recurring feature of General Assembly meetings for years now due to this unique opportunity to force world leaders to acknowledge their demands. Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity, who helped organize the mobilization, said, “Tens of thousands of people are marching in the streets of New York because they want climate action, and they understand President Biden’s expansion of fossil fuels is squandering our last chance to avoid climate catastrophe.” President Biden has been praised by some climate activists for passing the historic Inflation Reduction Act last year, which included $369 billion in climate funding, but he has faced harsh criticism from many who are still angry that he broke his campaign promises of declaring a federal climate emergency and ending new oil and gas infrastructure projects on federal lands, with Biden already approving the controversial Willow Project oil drilling in Alaska and the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia.
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