The People’s Climate March – It’s an Emergency!

The emergency Climate Summit happening next week 23 September in New York, is exactly that, and on the “global”, “this-is-our-future”, “FTW” ranks.

It was called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon out of the scheduled, and in advance of the UNFCCC COP (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – Conference of Parties) [laymanized: gathering of countries to agree on solving climate change] in Lima at the end of the year, and Paris in 2014.

BKM has extended invitations to world leaders at the highest level, and urging them to commit to greenhouse gas emission cuts and bold climate action, and for countries to reach a meaningful legally-binding agreement in Paris next year. Let’s bolt-in and fight this evil CC monster destroying our world!

The ending we hope for is the monster pulverized into oblivion.

In the accounts of the scientists from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) [laymanized: the group of really smart people from around the world tasked to study climate change], we are in for a grim future if countries continue to move as slow as they have in previous negotiations. Other climate scientists are now dropping F-bombs in media interviews. Get it into your heads, this is a freaking A-1 grade emergency people!

Well the people, are not sitting this out and now seek to work alongside leaders like BKM: enter the People’s Climate March (PCM).

Fashioned after the great social movements on Civil Rights, Women’s Voting and Nuclear Disarmament, but with the social media edge of the Occupy movements and the Arab Spring, PCM is poised to be the largest people’s movement in history. It intends to be a very public call for all the leaders coming to New York to be the heroes in this story–the one’s with the grand slow motion fist-pump-into-the-sky in the end.

With now close to 1500 organizations committing members’ involvements, lead by 350.org and Avaaz, supported by the usual suspects, Oxfam, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and WWF, the young, the old, the conservatives and the in-your-face characters, the faithful, the faith-so-so and the faith-less, the political, the a-political, the famous and the wannabes, the sweet ones, the simple ones, the smart ones, the hipsters and the high-fashion, the rich with their Tesla convertibles, the poor with their donated solar mobile phone charges, the fathers, the sons and daughters, the mothers will all be represented at PCM with an online global platform that only this day and age allows.

The focus will naturally be on the gathering in New York but in the Philippines several events have been posted and all anyone has to do is show up, if not start own for a location advantage.

As PNoy speaks to his fellow leaders in New York, a huge march is scheduled at the Mendiola Peace Arch in Manila on Monday the 22^ndstarting 10am, to help make sure he walks the talk when he gets back. Luzon folks available on the weekend can choose to be in Ayala trianglein Makati, Sunday the 21^st at 1 pm; there are also smaller marches and other events the days leading to the weekend. Greenpeace Philippineshas launched a ‘virtual march’ platform via a Twitter storm for those who cannot leave home but want to take part.

For those of you who can’t decide, we have just the treat! Watch this uber entertaining, excellently produced film, that is, best of all, available online, for FREE! “Disruption” Spoiler alert: by the end you will realize why you should’ve gotten off your ass in the first place.

What are we asking for? That leaders exercise political will to ensure that we avoid the tipping point to catastrophic climate change. We want a future with bright skies in the summer and just a couple of storms in the rainy season to bless the food that’s grown in our healthy farms; we want our internet, our TV soap operas, our music, our cars and trains, our entire homes to run on guilt-free renewable energy that’s cheaply sourced from our roofs, our backyards, the hills across the bay or the power plant by the river that doubles as a park, where the waters are clear and fishes abound; where the surrounding

trees are lush and furry little friends traipse around; a future where every family gets everything they need, for ever.

The People’s Climate march isn’t even about activism anymore, it’s as basic a human instinct as getting out of the way of the speeding bus that is climate change; it’s as universal a need to be heard as to eat, drink, sleep and dream of a future that is both safe and beautiful for everyone we have ever cared about, because it is possible. Let all our wishes be heard and all our leaders be compelled to act alongside us in an unprecedented level of international cooperation. It’s that kind of an emergency.

Update by Philline P. Donggay from the Philippines