More than 310,000 Attend People’s Climate March
Clean Water Action
By Wendy Joan Biddlecombe
More than 310,000 people flooded midtown Manhattan Sunday with one main message ahead of the United Nation’s Climate Summit: do something about climate change.
Activists came from all over the country and the world to attend the People’s Climate March, lining up along Central Park West Sunday morning. The march weaved down 6th Avenue, and across 42nd Street, ending along 11th Avenue at 34th Street.
Many local activists who marched said they were concerned with air quality in New York City and the tri-state area. Kim Gaddy, 50, an organizer with Clean Water Action in Newark, said she has been a climate change activist for the past 20 years, ever since her first child was diagnosed with asthma.
“I had to get involved because my kids’ life is on the line,” said Gaddy, adding her next two children were diagnosed with asthma when they were toddlers.
Gaddy’s group lined up not far from the start of the march at Columbus Circle, and said it was fitting environmental justice activists and indigenous peoples because “unfortunately, we are the ones that are at the front of the line with all the pollution.”
Gaddy said she believes reducing greenhouse gases and fossil fuels should be a “priority” for the UN conference.
