The People Speak on Climate Change

"If it was easy, they wouldn't call it a 'struggle.'" --Rising Tide North America

A mighty, sleeping, giant rose with
the sun in the east yesterday and the swell of resistance thundered westward
across North America. The Mobilization for Climate Justice
called for urgent action on the global climate crisis. Organizers contemplated the protests
in Seattle a decade ago, that shut down the World
Trade Organization (WTO) and looked ahead to Copenhagen, where the world will go to set
international standards for reversing climate change.

Ananda Lee Tan, who helped organize the WTO protests and
today's Mobilization said in an interview with Democracy Now, "I think we're at
a place where once again we're faced with turning out massive numbers of people
on the streets to challenge the corporate interference with international
climate policy talks, but also here in the U.S."

Activists launched non-violent fasts, die-ins and blockades
in New York, Boston,
Los Angeles and Ontario.
Bold climate activists in Greenville, SC chained themselves to the
Cliffside Coal Plant Power Generator; in Washington, DC, they blocked K Street,
where the corporate lobbyists roost; in Chicago, IL, they were arrested by the
dozen in the financial district; they held a die-in in Denver; and in San
Francisco, CA 200 activists took control of the Bank of America headquarters on
Market Street, locking themselves to the revolving doors prior to being
arrested.

They wanted to end new coal-fired power plant construction,
stop mountaintop removal coal mining and put an end to market-based solutions,
like "cap and trade" and "offsets," being offered by the U.S. Congress, which
will not reverse climate change. They
want corporations and profits out of the debate and the disproportionate impact
of climate change on low-income people and communities of color to be a major
consideration in Copenhagen. Washington, DC organizer Lacy
MacAuley said, "We are calling for 'Corporations out of Copenhagen,' asking
businesses and their lobbyists to step aside and let us create meaningful
solutions to climate change, solutions that place people before profit."

The Mobilization for Climate
Justice website reports that marchers in Washington "began at the US Chamber of
Commerce, the top lobby group representing corporate CEOs at the expense of
people and the planet, and then visited many sites of climate destruction
throughout the city. Activists marched to the American Petroleum Institute,
banks funding climate destruction such as Bank of America, and lobbyists for
oil companies like Shell, Chevron, BP and Conoco Phillips."

"Any agreement made in Copenhagen will be
meaningless if the US
continues to build coal plants such as Cliffside. It is time to tear down coal
plants, not construct new ones," said Rachel Scarano. There are currently 43
coal plants proposed or under construction in the US, though over 100 others have
been canceled due to widespread protests, according to www.itsgettinghotinhere.org. Four people were arrested in South Carolina and
police threatened a protestor with a tazer.

Roland Micklem, 81, began a fast today at the West Virginia State
Capitol. He is supporting activists at Climate
Ground Zero , in their ongoing campaign of
non-violent civil disobedience in southern West Virginia to end mountaintop removal
coal mining and its effects on our future. In a Climate
Ground Zero press release, Micklem, a devout Christian said, "This is a
prolonged act of mourning, not only for the mountains, but for all of God's
Creation-plants, animals, nature-that has been callously exploited and abused
to satisfy the selfish wants of a single species."

Chicago
activists hit the financial district,
targeting the Chicago Climate Exchange, the first and largest carbon
market in North America. The group marched past several other
"climate criminals," including JP Morgan Chase, a major funder of
mountain top
removal coal mining; Midwest Generation, the owner of Chicago's two
coal-fired
power plants; and the Board of Trade, which trades in palm oil, one of
the
leading drivers of rainforest destruction.
Twelve activists were arrested.

Even a few aliens got in on the
action. The green-faced, Avaaz aliens stood
at the entrance of Danish Prime Minister's Marienborg residence, near Copenhagen and asked in
alien cadence, "Where are the EU climate leaders?" The
intergalactic visitors made it clear that real climate leaders will commit to a
global emissions peak year of 2015.
Canadian protestors took over the office of the Finance Minister.

Rising
Tide North America, one of
the groups organizing today's Mobilization, is appealing for funds to pay the
legal expenses of those arrested today.
Activists at Climate Ground Zero also have legal expenses related to their
ongoing campaign.

Looking back and reflecting on today's Mobilization, organizer David
Solnit said in a Democracy Now interview that the story of the Seattle
protests, "is one that tells that people, when we take action and organize
together, we have power and we can make change. And that is the story that is
terrifying to elites."