Summer of Deadly Climate Breakdown Spurs Mass Protests Worldwide

Jake Johnson

17 September 2023: Climate activists are closing out the hottest summer on record with hundreds of demonstrations worldwide, all blaring a unified message: “End fossil fuels.”

From Indonesia to Uganda to the United Kingdom to the United States, climate campaigners young and elderly, scientists, human rights advocates, and other defenders of the planet have taken to the streets this weekend or are planning to do so on Sunday, a mass mobilization that comes ahead of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Climate Ambition Summit in New York City on Wednesday.

On Sunday afternoon, the city is set to see the largest climate protest in the U.S. in years, with tens of thousands expected to join a march calling on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and do everything in his power to phase out fossil fuel extraction.

“We deserve a world free from fossil fuels,” organizers declared before Sunday’s march, which is set to kick off at 1:00 pm ET. “This is our chance, and Biden’s opportunity, to break free from fossil fuels and build a just and safe future.”

The United States is the world’s largest historical emitter of planet-warming greenhouse gases, and a recent report identified the country as ” planet-wrecker-in-chief” over its continued support for fossil fuel expansion at home and abroad. The nation has been hit by a record 23 billion-dollar extreme weather events so far this year.

Biden, who has come under fire for approving massive drilling projects in Alaska and elsewhere, is expected to skip Wednesday’s Climate Ambition Summit.

The New York City march will cap off a weekend of global climate action held at the tail-end of a summer marred by catastrophic extreme weather, from devastating wildfires in Hawaii and Greece to massive flooding in Libya and China.

Thousands of people have been killed across the globe by extreme weather this year.

“We’ve experienced a summer of painful evidence that we are living in the midst of a climate crisis,” organizer Eric Weltman told a local New York media outlet on Saturday.

In the face of intensifying climate breakdown and government inaction, activists around the world have ramped up their protests and civil disobedience outside of government buildings and corporate offices in recent days.

“In Quezon City in the Philippines [on Friday], activists lay in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in protest and held signs demanding fossil fuels—from coal to natural gas—be phased out,” The Guardian reported. “In Sweden, climate activists gathered in front of Parliament, just next to the Royal Palace where Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf was celebrating his 50th anniversary on the throne. Their chants about ‘climate justice’ could be heard in the palace courtyard as the king watched the changing of the guard during the golden jubilee celebrations.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that more than a third of Earth’s population currently lives in areas “highly vulnerable” to climate chaos, a fact that was magnified this year as much of the globe faced weather disasters made far more likely by the continued burning of fossil fuels.

A comprehensive U.N. report published earlier this month found that world governments are nowhere close to holding emissions to levels necessary to keep warming within limits set by the Paris climate accord nearly a decade ago.

Agnès Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, warned that “this generation faces a worsening climate catastrophe, with devastating consequences for human rights, but too many leaders in positions of power today are doing too little to avert this disaster, and even reneging on existing promises.”

“We call on governments and corporations to act now to safeguard everyone’s right to a healthy environment by bringing a rapid end to the current era of fossil fuel dependency, swiftly and fairly transitioning to renewable energy sources, and ending energy poverty,” said Callamard.

Fossil fuel giants, meanwhile, are thriving—and ditching their previous vows to curb emissions, barreling ahead with more planet-wrecking oil and gas production.

While profits have dipped this year amid falling global gas prices, the world’s leading fossil fuel companies raked in a combined $219 billion last year, spurring growing calls for legal action against the destructive industry.

On Friday, California became the largest economy in the world to file suit against major oil and gas companies.

“Against the backdrop of a harrowing year, with millions of people experiencing devastating climate impacts, the painful reality of the climate crisis is clear,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s well past time to stop putting the profits of fossil fuel companies ahead of the wellbeing of people and the planet.”

(Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams. Courtesy: Common Dreams, a US non-profit news portal.)

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‘End Fossil Fuels’ Protests Kick Off Worldwide Ahead of UN Climate Ambition Summit

Jessica Corbett

Sep 15, 2023: Hundreds of demonstrations around the world demanding “a rapid, just, and equitable phaseout from fossil fuels in favor of sustainable renewables” began Friday ahead of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Climate Ambition Summit in New York City next week.

“From Pacific nations, heavily affected by sea-level rise and storms, through Mumbai to Manila, London to Nairobi, over 650 actions are planned in 60 countries, culminating in a march in New York City on September 17,” according to protest organizers.

The Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels “opposes the fossil fuel industry, which has made obscene profits at the expense of the world’s people, biodiversity, and a safe and livable climate,” added organizers, who expect millions to join the protests over the coming days. “It calls on governments and companies to immediately end fossil fuel expansion and subsidies.”

Demonstrators, journalists, and supporters shared footage from Friday’s actions on social media with the hashtag #EndFossilFuels.

The actions come amid the hottest summer on record and as experts continue to sound the alarm over unwavering environmental destruction, especially by the fossil fuel industry and its political and financial backers.

International scientists revealed this week that six of nine barriers that ensure Earth is a “safe operating space for humanity” have been breached, which followed recent findings that greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level, and ocean heat content hit record highs last year.

Climate chaos—fueled by oil and gas giants that have spend decades lying about their planet-heating pollution along with rich governments and institutions that continue to break their promises and pump billions of dollars into the fossil fuel industry—is already killing people. The death toll from flooding in Libya this week has climbed to 11,300.

“The world is at a tipping point,” said Tyrone Scott of the War on Want and the Climate Justice Coalition in the United Kingdom ahead of protests this weekend. “Climate catastrophe is already devastating the lives and livelihoods of people across the world and primarily those in the Global South, who are least responsible for causing it.”

“We must uproot the systems of exploitation and oppression which keep the majority of the world’s population in poverty while lining the pockets of corporates and rich shareholders. This is a watershed moment. How we respond will determine how the world is shaped for generations,” Scott stressed. “We demand an end to fossil fuels. We demand a fast and fair transition. We demand climate justice.”

Tens of thousands of activists from across the United States are expected to join the March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on Sunday. Marchers—backed by hundreds of organizations and scientists—have four key demands for President Joe Biden:

• Stop federal approval for new fossil fuel projects and repeal permits for climate bombs like the Willow project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline;
• Phase out fossil drilling on our public lands and waters;
• Declare a climate emergency to halt fossil fuel exports and investments abroad, and turbocharge the buildout of more just, resilient distributed energy (like rooftop and community solar); and
• Provide a just transition to a renewable energy future that generates millions of jobs while supporting workers’ and community rights, job security, and employment equity.

“Despite his numerous and explicit pledges to the contrary, President Biden has turned out to be a strong supporter of fossil fuels,” Food & Water Watch Northeast region director Alex Beauchamp, an organizer of the NYC march, said in a statement Friday.

“With each passing day, Biden’s failure to lead on clean energy drives the planet deeper into the abyss of irrevocable climate chaos,” he added. “We’re marching to send a message that true climate leadership means halting new oil and gas drilling and fracking, and rejecting new fossil fuel infrastructure like pipelines and export terminals—beginning now.”

Betamia Coronel, senior national organizer for climate justice at the Center for Popular Democracy, highlighted in a Friday opinion piece for Common Dreams that “BIPOC communities have always lived at the intersection of wealth disparity and the climate crisis,” and “it is Black, Indigenous, immigrant, working-class people of color who have been leading the efforts in the lead up to this historic march in NYC.”

Dozens of actors, activists, and climate leaders—including Bill McKibben, Blair Imani, Cornel West, Jameela Jamil, Jane Fonda, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Klein, Rosario Dawson, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Rebecca Solnit, and Vanessa Nakate—joined more than 700 groups on Friday in sending a pre-march letter to the U.S. president.

“The U.S. is the top global oil and gas producer and the largest historic greenhouse gas emitter. It is imperative that the U.S. change course and become a true global climate leader by ending the extraction and use of fossil fuels,” they wrote, urging Biden to commit to phasing out fossil fuels at the U.N. summit on September 20. “The world is watching.”

Biden has also faced mounting pressure to declare a climate emergency this year, as the United States has endured a record-setting number of billion-dollar disasters, from a deadly fire in Hawaii to Hurricane Idalia. Since last week, eight campaigners have been arrested outside the White House for a series of protests demanding a climate emergency declaration and other executive action to end the era of fossil fuels.

Organizers planned to continue the nonviolent civil disobedience campaign in Washington, D.C. on Friday, and warned that “each day Biden delays in taking this step is precious time lost to save lives and secure a livable future for humankind and countless other species.”

(Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams. Courtesy: Common Dreams, a US non-profit news portal.)