The people marched -- more than 300,000 of them!

Over 300,000 people, frustrated by government inaction on climate change, took to the streets of New York on Sunday, prior to this week's meeting of world leaders at the United Nations. The march attracted some notable figures including former Vice President Al Gore and U.N. Secretary Genereal Ban Ki-moon but it was mostly an event for concerned citizens -- average joes like you and me. 

According to The New York Times, attendees were diverse:
"From the scientists holding an oversize chalkboard to the Hurricane Sandy victims toting life preservers, the march was a self-consciously inclusive affair, with the organizers intent on creating a very big tent, which they hoped would hammer home the relevance of climate change and its effects."

Bill McKibben, one of the march organizers, characterized the noise marchers made as "sounding a burglar alarm on the people who are stealing the future” in a recent TIME article.

And mostly, people marched because they have hope. From The Washington Times:

“'Today I march because I want to behold a brighter future. We have destroyed ourselves. We have destroyed our health, and I’m here because our political leaders have failed us,' Stanley Sturgill, a retired coal miner from Kentucky who’s now fighting black lung, said during a press conference. 'We know together we can build our bright future.'” 

I'm so glad I made the trek to New York on Sunday. It was astounding and deeply moving to be with more than 300,000 people, marching through the streets, calling on the President and Congress to ‪#‎ActOnClimate‬. The day felt historic, something I'll remember decades from now. 


Photo by Karyn L. Wiseman

I've been pushing for climate action for 30 years so I can be as jaded as the next activist about when this country will take meaningful steps to get slow climate change. (How deeply sad that I can no longer even call on the country to stop climate change. That train left the station maybe a decade ago.)

So I'm a realist, and a skeptic, but not entirely without hope. This could be the week that tips the balance. Not all our leaders will ignore the voices of 300,000 people, nor the exciting and well timed announcement this week from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to divest of fossil fuels. We'll see.

Whatever the outcome in the U.N. this week, the call for change is growing louder. It will eventually be heard.

And I wouldn't have missed the People's Climate March for the world.

Joy Bergey is federal policy director for PennFuture and is based in Philadelphia. She tweets @joybergey.