NYC Climate Action March Draws Thousands In Manhattan

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY — More than 3,000 people marched through Lower Manhattan on Thursday evening for a massive protest demanding action to address climate change.

The "New York Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice" march was organized to press Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and other officials to shift to renewable energy, stop fossil fuel projects and penalize corporate polluters.

"We’ve got a vision of a just society, a society with good jobs, the kind that can build the energy system we need," Sara Gronim of the activist group 350 Brooklyn told the crowd gathered in Battery Park. "... That’s why we’re rising up for climate, jobs and justice."

Backed by more than 100 organizations, the rally and march on a bizarrely hot — and then rainy — September evening kicked off a weekend of similar protests around the world ahead of next week's Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. Some activists also had tough words for Cuomo a week before he faces Cynthia Nixon in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary election.

Youth groups led the march out of Battery Park as dark clouds sprinkled rain on the jubilant, vociferous protesters. Many marched up Church Street and then down Broadway holding signs and echoing chants such as “Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go!”

Eliza Spear, a costume designer from East Harlem, dressed as Mother Earth with a turquoise wig, a globe around her torso and colorful jewel-like teardrops on her cheeks. She’s been angered by the Trump administration's "comically bad" environmental policies, she said, especially its rollbacks of limitations on coal companies.

Spear, 37, said she was surprised to see such a big crowd. “Anyone who enjoys breathing should be here,” she said.

Many messages at the march were directed not at the Repulican president but at Cuomo, a Democrat who has banned fracking and planned investments in offshore wind infrastructure. As the front of the crowd entered Zuccotti Park, protesters chanted, "Cuomo, don't be a fool, move New York off fossil fuels."

Gronin called the governor an "enabler" of fossil fuel companies and urged him to block fossil fuel-related projects such as the Williams Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that would reportedly extend from New Jersey into waters south of Staten Island, Coney Island and the Rockaway peninsula.

"The No. 1 thing that Andrew Cuomo can do for the sake of humanity and human civilization is resign, but it's a little too late for that," said Jamie Tyberg, the development director for New York Communities for Change, an activist group that has endorsed Nixon.

In addition to banning fracking under Cuomo, the state is "committed" to phasing out coal power plants and has adopted a clean energy standard to ensure half of the electricity consumed in the state will come from renewable sources by 2030, according to a state website bearing the governor's photograph.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who came out against the Williams Pipeline on Wednesday, said it's important for elected officials to hear from activists about the urgency of climate issues.

"This is about the people speaking out, people saying, 'We want a say, we want an opportunity to save the planet,'" said Stringer, whose office is working on a strategy for New York City's pension funds to divest from fossil fuels.

Manhattan has hosted other massive climate change protests in recent years. The People's Climate March in September 2014 reportedly drew more than 300,000 people. Another Lower Manhattan march called "Flood Wall Street" reportedly resulted in about 100 arrests the next day.

Zan Jacobus of Park Slope, Brooklyn said she hopes more people understand how important it is to organize around climate issues.

"We’re on a deadline," said Jacobus, a 60-year-old clinical social worker. "I don’t want my grandchildren to be living in a world where trees and animals start dying off because it’s too hot."

(Lead image: Eliza Spear of East Harlem marches in Manhattan on Thursday. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)