foecardiff
The I count rally
Sat 22nd Nov 08 — admin
The I Count climate change rally, Trafalgar Square, London. Photo: © Paul Anderson
The I Count rally
London 4 November 2006
It was an early start on a cold morning for the Cardiff Friends of the Earth local group members who went to the I Count demonstration against climate change in London. The Campaign Against Climate Change rally at the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square marched to join the Stop Climate Chaos rally in Trafalgar Square. The rally at the embassy demanded a strong and effective international treaty which builds on the Kyoto Treaty to limit carbon emissions.
In total 22,500 people from more than 40 organisations and said I Count. They called on the Government to introduce a new Climate Change Bill in the UK. December 2005 saw the first global demonstrations over climate change. Ten thousand marched in London, and about 60,000 in 20 other countries.
Comedian Rufus Hound and TV presenter Simon Amstell entertained the crowd. Musicians Razorlight and KT Tunstall also took part.
KT Tunstall said "I'm here today because of the situation with the environment. We are screwing it up, we are making a real mess. Today is about raising awareness that we need to change our behaviour."
She felt anyone who had a degree of success and had a voice has a "responsibility" to put that to good use.
Razorlight's Johnny Borrell added: "I'm here with everybody else to register my voice essentially and to be heard for our concerns about the environment." "The whole thing about climate change is an issue I hardly knew anything about. It didn't register until I saw Al Gore's film recently. I walked out of the cinema saying we've got to do something about it. I phoned up Friends of the Earth and they asked me to do this today."
Every week the scientific journals and the newspapers report new evidence that climate change is accelerating.
Every politician except George Bush is saying we must stop the threat of climate change. Tony Blair, David Miliband, David Cameron, Angela Merkl, and Arnold Schwarzenegger are giving speeches and make promises.
But words are not action. The Governments of the world do not want to pay to stop climate change. They do not want huge programmes for alternative energy, building insulation, public transport and regulating the pollution of industry. They do not want to take on the oil companies.
They talk about carbon emission cuts of 5 to 20 percent. We need 90 percent cuts in the rich countries.
The people of the world will have to force the politicians to act, or replace them with ones who will. This means mass mobilisation from below. Saturday 4 November is a start at that, but only a start.
There were also demonstrations in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Kenya, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the US, Canada, and 20 countries in Europe.