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The New York state elections just concluded, and the national midterms are still weeks away, but there is a campaign office in downtown Manhattan that has just gone into overdrive. Volunteers there are hard at work on another deadline: Sept. 21.
That’s the day of the People’s Climate March, what promises to be the largest demonstration for action on climate change in world history. The march has brought together more than 1,100 organizations at last count, from the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance to the Georgia Climate Change Coalition. A coalition that’s both staggering in size and diversity.
“There’s a vast latent constituency of people out there who are alarmed about climate change. But for years, nobody has put up a banner that said ‘this is the time, this is the place, to show you care,'” says Ricken Patel, executive director of the 38-million member civic organization, Avaaz. “The People’s Climate March is that banner, and we’re seeing a phenomenal response to it.”
The response should be a wake up call to politicians who still consider climate change a niche issue. For years, climate change felt like a distant threat. Environmentalists, used to stressing out about such things, were incensed. But for the vast majority of the public, fixated on immediate priorities, like finding a job or keeping the kids healthy, a few melting ice bergs just didn’t register.
Enter Irene and Sandy from stage left. Cue wildfires, drought and devastating floods. Over the last couple years, it’s as if Jerry Bruckheimer was put in charge of producing Mother Nature’s special effects. The extreme weather events have become blockbusters: literally. Americans don’t need to read a scientific report to understand the threat posed by climate change, they can see it right outside their window.