(Maine State Rep. Deanne Rykerson and me at the Climate March)
October 1, 2014
WE MADE HISTORY! MARCHING FOR OUR CLIMATE
By Glen Brand, Sierra Club Maine Chapter Director
On Sunday, September 21, I woke up very, very early in the morning to get on Sierra Club Maine special charter bus from Portland to travel to New York City for the People's Climate March (PCM). The Maine Chapter organized six charter buses (three from Portland; one from Biddeford; one from Unity and Colby Colleges; and one from Portsmouth) to bring hundreds of Mainers to this historic event.
I knew the PCM was going to be big, but I was overwhelmed that we were among the 400,000 people in the streets in NYC demanding action on climate!! It was amazing to see the throngs of people of all ages working to protect our climate. It was great to see so many Maine climate activists there, including Maine State Rep. Deane Rykerson who was carrying a Maine flag (see pic above). Check out the many great photos and videos of the March taken by our bus riders on our Facebook page. Together, we created the largest, most diverse climate action in history.
Already, the people power on display at the March has had an impact. The day after the March, President Obama addressed the UN Climate Summit in New York, saying that “our citizens keep marching. We cannot pretend we do not hear them.” He also named climate disruption the “one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other," and he affirmed his commitment to setting ambitious emissions reduction targets early next year and called on other major global economies to do the same.
For me, the March was a powerful, inspiring and really fun experience, and I'm super-charged to build on the March's momentum to organize on climate solutions in Maine.
In Solidarity,
Glen