Wow. Just wow. Unless you had turned off all electronic devices and spent September 21 in the beautiful wilderness, you probably heard something about the People’s Climate March. More than 25,000 Sierra Club members, volunteers, and leaders participated in the event in New York, joining tens of thousands of other marchers representing religious, labor, youth, environmental, and civil rights organizations. It has been called the largest march in climate change history! But the action was not confined to the streets of New York. Hundreds of supporters marched in solidarity events all across Texas. [Updated 4:00pm, 9/29]
New York
Estimates put the turnout in New York at 400,000, and the Sierra Club played a huge part. According to the Sierra Club national office, this was the largest ever gathering of Sierra Club members and supporters in the history of the organization! Members came from dozens of states and around the world. Here are some stats from national’s press release:
- 108 buses organized and funded by the Sierra Club
- More than 1,000 Vermonters came by bus, many of them Sierra Club volunteers and members
- Nine buses with Sierra Club volunteers and members came from Rhode Island
- 60,000-plus combined online and offline RSVPs
- More than 1,500 partner organizations
Austin
The largest solidarity event in Texas was in Austin. Approximately 450 supporters came from several cities to the Capitol where they held a rally with powerful speakers and marched through downtown Austin. While a major focus of the event was to oppose Austin Energy’s plan to build a new fracked gas plant in East Austin, the official message of the event was conveyed by several organizations:
“Austin Texas stands with the People’s Climate March in NYC, in calling for accountability from our public leaders to support climate justice. Those least responsible for climate change are those most likely affected by it and those most responsible are the least affected. The advancement of a global environmental justice movement is rooted in action, not words – and is rooted in land, not ideas. Texas stands in solidarity with the global majority who suffer the theft of their land, the extraction of natural resources, the pollution of land and water and the drought brought on by climate change. This is our environment.”
A few of the participating organizations included: 350.org, Unify, Equilibrio, Alma de Mujer, Bold Nebraska, Texas Drought Project, and the Austin Climate Action Network, Shield the People.
Photo: Tammie Carson
To see more photos from the Austin event, check out Tammie Carson’s photos on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/tammie.carson.3/media_set?set=a.10152328440852694.1073741895.572972693&type=1
McAllen
Photo: Stefanie Herweck
In McAllen, situated in the Rio Grande Valley on the border with Mexico, a group of dedicated University of Texas – Pan American students took it upon themselves to organize a solidarity march and rally. Approximately 130 people participated in the march and listened to speakers on topics including the need to accept climate change as a new reality, local environmental victories, LNG, and the impact of climate change on farmworkers. Several Sierra Club members attended and set up a table, where they gave away stickers and native plants. Sierra Club member Stefanie Herweck sent this account of the day:
“From the beginning the idea was to bring together activists working on all kinds of progressive issues, including labor, voting rights, reproductive rights, and people that worked with farmworkers and in the colonias, and we succeeded in that. The idea is to continue to build these bridges and ultimately to develop a climate justice movement here in the Rio Grande Valley. There's an understanding that it's critical, since we are absolutely a frontline community, with some of the highest poverty rates in the United States, we are vulnerable to all three climate killers: drought, tropical storms, and sea level rise, and we will almost certainly be impacted by any climate-related disasters that occur in Mexico, especially if U.S. border policy continues to be as ham-fisted and destructive as it has been in the last decade.”
Nacogdoches
In East Texas, people did not “sit back and watch” the climate march in New York. Around 150 people turned out to march in Nacogdoches and rally (some came from as far as Dallas!), listening to speakers such as Eleanor Fairchild on Winnsboro, a great grandmother who was arrested and charged with criminal trespass on her own land during construction of Keystone XL pipeline, Austin Heights Baptist Church pastor Kyle Childress, and Jeremy Ayers, student and member of Stephen F. Austin University’s The Environmental Awareness Movement (TEAM), among others.
Check out this great story from KTRE's Maleeha Kamal:
KTRE.com | Lufkin and Nacogdoches, Texas
Photo: Adrian Van Dellen
Events were also held in Houston and Brownsville. Air Alliance Development Director Sara Heald sent this account of the Houston event:
“Last Friday, in solidarity with the People’s Climate March in New York City, about 100 citizens organized and marched through the streets of Downtown Houston. Air Alliance Houston was excited to be counted in that number. We marched in support of the upcoming UN climate conference and to raise awareness of the need for immediate action to dramatically reduce the amount of carbon we're putting into the atmosphere and to abate the effects we know are coming as the result of the mistakes humanity has collectively made to date with regard to carbon output.
The route began at City Hall’s reflecting pool and with the help of polite and generally friendly police, meandered through downtown, taking care to stop at the headquarters of many of Houston’s top climate change contributors. At each stop, the crowds were asked to stop chanting briefly and lead demonstrators spoke for a few minutes about the activities of each corporation.
The timing of the march was ideal and Friday rush hour commuters were temporarily inconvenienced from their trips back home by large group street crossings and the sounds of chanting: "Change the system not the climate" and "The sea is rising and so are we!"
“Making Houston Hotter” was an exciting event and a great way to kick off the week ahead’s climate change-related events happening globally. We hope that next time, you will be counted in that number with us!”
If you know of more solidarity events that were held in Texas, please let us know!
UPDATE: [29 Sept. 2014 - 4:00pm]
Brownsville
A dedicated group of volunteers with several organizations brought concerned citizens together in Brownsville to demonstrate peacefully for climate action. According to Azucar Salvaje, the Sierra Club, Brownsville Bike Brigade, and Save RGV from LNG members joined together, handing out hundreds of fliers. A significant aspect of the solidarity event focused on raising local awareness of the upcoming plans to lease Port Brownsville lands to liquefied natural gas industries.
More from Salvaje: "Our demonstration may not have been a larger [sic] one, however we were very happy to participate in such a collective gathering worldwide. I know that everyone participating would have loved to be on the streets of New York that day. I am also glad that we were able to raise awareness about the upcoming plans to Lease Port Brownsville lands to liquefied natural gas Industries. Many people were not informed of this."