Hundreds of climate leaders gathered today in a hall in Copenhagen, cupping candles to their chest in a vigil for survival. The climate leaders represent a huge and growing climate movement, a movement that organized thousands of vigils this past weekend in almost every country on earth, that marched in the tens of thousands this Saturday, and represent a movement over 12 million strong. Each of the 1,200 candles held by the participants at the vigil read, “this candle represents 10,000 people who want a real deal”, referring to for a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty called for in the TckTckTck petition.
However, the vigil is not being held inside the Bella Center, where the heads of state from over 110 countries have gathered, as almost all representatives of civil society were removed from the conference center today. In fact, a group of young climate leaders conducting a sit-in for a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty, where they pledged to read every name of the aforementioned petition until a deal was reached, were told that if they did not leave, every civil society representative would be removed for the remainder of the process.
Even as the young people left peacefully, leaving signs inside of the conference center saying, “Civil society has been removed from the negotiations”. Ironically, the hastily arranged alternative venue is located down the street from the Klimaforum, the climate summit being held primarily by civil society organizations that weren’t officially participating in the UN Copenhagen climate talks. While many at the vigil felt frustrated, the feeling of hope is also palpable as people look back at the gains made in building the movement to the size and scale it is now. Another thing that people are feeling is hunger. Many of the people attending the vigil, including myself, are fasting today, in support of the climate justice fast. A fast calling attention to the hunger that climate change will impose upon millions. The vigil was led by civil society leaders from every part of world, ranging from indigenous groups to youth groups and environmental organizations. Bill McKibben, who spoke to the crowd, connected climate change to the fasters by saying, “The inexorable rise in temperature brings droughts and floods…
The work we are doing is on the behalf of those that are already hungry, and it is on behalf of all those who will be hungry from climate change into the future.”
The leaders of the Climate Justice Fast have been fasting for forty-two days, eating nothing and drinking only water. After just one cold and hungry day, the willpower and strength it takes to conduct a fast of such duration is simply jaw-dropping. Their determination makes you wonder if that was what it was like to stand side-by-side with the leaders of the anti-apartheid and civil rights movements of the past. All for the purpose of focusing our attention to the fact that climate change will be a humanitarian disaster, not just an environmental one.
What can you do? Sign the petition today, as our partners are working to reach 15 million names by the end of the climate process, to show the massive public support for action on climate change and a real deal that is fair, ambitious, and binding. Also, stay tuned as our partners and the TckTckTck will have some big announcements in the next 24 hours.
