September 19, 2014
Hundreds of Southern Californians to Demonstrate along Wilshire Boulevard in Solidarity with Historic People’s Climate Mobilization in New York City Demanding Immediate Action on Climate Crisis
A unique demonstration on climate change will coincide with mobilizations across multiple U.S. cities calling for action to avert crises like the historic California drought
Media Advisory: People's Climate LA - Building Blocks Against Climate Change
Media Contacts:
Jack Eidt, SoCal 350 Climate Action Coalition (714) 501-8262,jack.eidt@wilderutopia.com
Jack Eidt, SoCal 350 Climate Action Coalition (714) 501-8262,jack.eidt@wilderutopia.com
Steve Wicke, Sierra Club (714) 317-4952, climatesierraac@gmail.com
Paul Neuman, Koretz (213) 473-7005, paul.neuman@lacity.org
Los Angeles – On September 20th, hundreds of activists and supporters from a coalition of environmental, religious, educational, political, and union groups will gather along LA’s iconic Wilshire Boulevard between MacArthur Park and South Wilton Place. Organizations such as SoCal 350 Climate Action Coalition, Sierra Club, NRDC, California Nurses Association, and Progressive Christians Uniting will join 60 groups in solidarity with the historic People’s Climate March in New York City.
The demonstration, organized by Converging Storms Action Network, will form a chain of interlinking block protests, like overlapping neighborhood vigils or sidewalk picket lines extending block after adjacent block through the MacArthur Park and Koreatown neighborhoods. Demonstrators will demand action on climate change with a goal of 100% clean energy, including advancing LA City Councilmember Paul Koretz’s motion to cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent in 2050. Koretz will be holding a press conference at 3470 Wilshire Blvd, a few steps south of the intersection of Wilshire and Normandie at 2:30 pm.
Furthermore, advocates aim to stop dangerous extraction methods like hydraulic fracturing or fracking that threaten water supplies, as well as shipping, storing and processing of corrosive tar sands crude via pipelines, railways and ships that cross our cities and oceans. Only strong measures will preserve California’s water supply, coasts, and forests for future generations.
In New York City, over 100,000 people are expected to attend the demonstration on Sunday. The People’s Climate March has been endorsed by over 1,200 organizations. 496 buses are coming in from nearly all 50 states. Other California solidarity actions are planned in the Bay Area, San Diego, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura, as well as numerous grassroots gatherings.
The organizers hope that this mobilization will become the iconic transition moment for the climate movement, much like what the 1963 March on Washington represented for the civil rights movement. So, this weekend, in Los Angeles as in New York, people will be in the streets, and in the words of noted climate change author Naomi Klein, “This Changes Everything.”
WHAT: A Southern California Climate Change Demonstration!
WHO: LA City Councilmember Paul Koretz, supporters of SoCal 350 Climate Action Coalition, Sierra Club, Converging Storms Action Network, Martin Luther King Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, NRDC, California Nurses Association, Progressive Christians Uniting and 60 other organizations
WHEN: Saturday, September 20, 2014, 1 – 5 pm
WHERE: Wilshire Blvd, between Wilton Place and Alvarado Street
PRESS: Press Conference with LA Councilmember Paul Koretz and supporting organizations at 2:30 PM, 3470 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
VISUALS: Large letter to California Decision Makers from Southern Californians; activists carrying banners and signs.