A student who went to last month’s climate march with the Asheville contingent shares their thoughts about what happened and why it matters.
Above: Marchers at the Sept. 21 People’s Climate March, which included a sizable Asheville contingent. Photo by Khaetlyn Grindell, used with permission.
We were 400,000 strong, marching for our future in the streets of New York City on Sunday, Sept. 21. Even with participants crammed shoulder to shoulder, the People’s Climate March stretched for miles. I could have walked for hours against the current and not reached the end. I will never forget that spectacular moment when the whole crowd observed a moment of silence and raised our hands in solidarity with people around the world who are experiencing the devastating effects of climate change.
Then I heard in the distance the roar that broke the silence. It began in the very back of the crowd and surged forward like a wave. The cheer exploded through the street, enveloping everyone in its path. From where I stood in the middle of the march I could hear it coming from miles away. As the cacophony approached me I felt like I was about to be hit by a freight train. I faced forward as the tidal wave of spirit crashed over me. My cheers joined the chorus and propelled our collective voice onwards.
After the conclusion of the People’s Climate March, the city still rings with that shout of 400,000. The march, coordinated by over 1,500 organizations, was timed to coincide with a United Nations Climate Summit happening the following week. Powerful as it was, the New York demonstration was the tip of an iceberg. On that same day participants in over 2,500 demonstrations in 156 different countries acted in solidarity, calling on world leaders to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The 140 world leaders from around the globe gathering in New York have seen the global demand for action. Now, will they heed the cry of the people for a safer, fairer world?
While I cannot speak for the world leaders, I know that being engulfed by that moving wall of passion is a feeling that will never leave me. As inspiring as it may sound, by all accounts the march itself was a struggle. From start to finish the march was over five hours of standing and walking. The seemingly endless stretches of hard cement gave marchers swollen feet and made it difficult to continue. At turns and intersections long stretches of stagnation would leave marchers feeling restless and impatient. For the 500-plus riders on the 10 buses that traveled to NYC from North Carolina, the march was sandwiched between two exhausting 12-hour rides. One marcher from Asheville accurately likened the experience to being hit by an emotional bus. It was hard, but we completed it together.
Much like the march, our journey to a stable climate will not be easy. Just as our feet hurt from marching for so long, our minds and spirits will ache from the climb towards climate justice. There will be times of stagnation when we feel impatient and aren’t moving forward. The road to a better world is muddy and rough, but after Sunday’s march, I know that we will get there, and that we will get there together.
I know we will cross the finish line together because of the diversity of passions that came together at the march. I saw signs speaking about the income inequality because the fossil fuel model of centralized electrical generation personifies the consolidation of power and wealth by an elite few. I saw signs that spoke to the Israel and Palestine conflict because war industries are so carbon intensive. There were messages about Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) because that technique of raising animals contributes enormously to greenhouse gasses. I even saw one sign that simply read in colorful letters “gender and climate justice.” Causes of all shapes and sizes are finding a voice under the climate change banner. A struggle for a hospitable world is a struggle for everything we love, and to win it we all need to come together.
Marching is necessary, but it doesn’t win the fight. It’s what you do when you get home that determines our future. We have no shortage of pressing issues in North Carolina. We stand on the precipice of hydraulic fracturing here at home. Our coal ash ponds continue to leak into our waterways. We are led by a runaway state government that will only grow bolder without a strong voter turnout in the upcoming midterm election. Our peril is matched only by our potential for success. As a state we have emerged as national leaders in solar electrical generation and electric vehicle adoption. The scales will tip whichever way we through our weight. Get informed, get involved, vote, and don’t stop until our battle is won.
The success of this once-in-a-generation event has marked climate change as the issue of our time, and we will face it united. By coming together on that September Sunday we created a force in the world. This force is greater than all those marchers combined, and it exists inside each one of us. It is the force of that crowd-enveloping cheer heard all around the world. As you fight for a hospitable climate, that roar will be forever at your back. Let it lift your sails in times of strife, and from now on know that you are never alone in the struggle for climate justice. So long as we keep the spirit of this cry for a better world alive within us, we will have the strength to march the long path to victory.
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Jamie DeMarco, is a junior at Warren Wilson College majoring in chemistry and working at the Environmental Leadership Center. He acted as one of the bus captains of the Asheville Climate Bus. For more information on the People’s Climate Mobilization, visit www.peoplesclimate.org.
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