No doubt many of you participated in the largest Climate March in NYC on Sept. 21st attended by over 300,000 diverse environmental and renewable energy groups. It became obvious early on that the March organizers had not planned for so many of us, but it seemed the police were … I have never seen so many police officers and barricades. It is unclear why the march that was to begin at 11:30 did not begin until 2:30, or why the barricades separated those marching from the many booths set up on the Central Park sidewalk forcing those of us to go into the park to access the booths or other march groups. At the end many said they felt the March lacked leadership and a strong political message, although several politicians and actors were spotted within the march.
The news media did not give the march a lot of coverage, but at least the Daily Show answered the question of why we need to get the importance of climate change out to the public (click here). One person on our bus made the ironic observation … although so many of us have become enlightened to the problem of climate change, we are unable to change our lifestyle in a way of dramatically reversing the damage to our environment … ie: the bus we were riding and the cars we drive and most methods of heating our homes, etc. On the flip side, NYC is filled with bicycles including numerous rental depots and bicycle rickshaws, and the city has made bike lanes a part of most streets and bridges. Upon our return had you checked CBS news for coverage of the Climate March you would instead have learned the important story that NYC is actively ticketing speedy bicyclists, especially in Central Park … and if you looked carefully … you could see folks marching in the background.