Yesterday my wife and I joined the Climate Change march in Washington DC. Great cries of “shame” rang out ss we marched past the Trump Hotel in the 91 degree hèat, an all-time high for April 29th. A man dressed in a huge polar bear outfit had to be escorted away from the crowd after he nearly psssed out in the heat. What was wonderful was the passion and commitment of the thousands of young and very diverse people, in particular. One of our party came fron San Francisco for the march, and almost every corner of the country was represented. It wiil be the young people who will suffer most from the science-hostile short-sightedness of those who say that “climate change is unproven”.
Some messages from the placards, at random:
A comb-over won’t fix climate change
Make America smart again
There are no jobs on a dead planet
There is no other planet
Good planets are hard to find
Make the Earth great again
I wish I could’ve been at the DC climate march. A similar march in London would be just as appropriate, with a government that will use its forthcoming increased majority to scrap EU environmental regulations after Brexit, and give the go-ahead to fracking.
There are some people like Richard Branson, who seem to believe that climate change can be abated by interplanetary migration to Mars. As Bill Maher points out last week, this is a delusional fantasy. This is the only habitable planet we know of. We must redouble our efforts to preserve it.
200,000 people turned out yesterday, fully aware that their protest would be dismissed by the people who prefer to believe corrupted talking heads on right-wing TV shows rather than trained scientists. What can we do? Only our best.
200,000 people turned out, all of them aware that their protest would be dismissed by the people who prefer to believe corrupted talking heads on right-wing TV shows rather than trained and committed scientists. What can we do?