Canadians join international day of action against climate change

OTTAWA — Thousands of Canadians joined Saturday in what was billed by some as the biggest political protest in the history of the planet, urging governments around the world to do more to fight climate change.

Braving weather conditions that were a far cry from anyone’s idea of global warming, hundreds of protesters stood in the cold, driving rain on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, holding soggy placards as they called for action.

“People in Canada care about this issue, and it’s this is one of biggest human-rights issues in the world today,” said 29-year Lori Waller of Ottawa, who was among the protesters.

“We have to get serious . . . in Canada — our government is doing pretty much nothing; it’s one of the worst of all countries in the world . . . for setting targets, and we’ve got to shape up.”

The protest in Ottawa was one of several planned demonstrations in a show of Canadian green solidarity stretching from Halifax, to Vancouver, to Whitehorse, and places in between.

The demonstrations were held in unison with others around the globe in advance of a UN summit in the Danish capital of Copenhagen in December, where protesters want to see a deal reached on an international climate accord replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Millions of demonstrators took part in more than 4,000 events registered in about 170 countries, including China, Australia, India, Jordan, Israel and others, according to activists.

From Asia to Europe via the Middle East, activists waved placards bearing the logo 350, referring to 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, which scientists say must not be exceeded to avoid runaway global warming.

France’s politicians received a "wake-up" call from several hundred Parisians who chose clocks as their symbol. Protesters met in a central square with their alarm clocks and mobile phones set to ring at 12:18 p.m. — a reference to the closing date of the summit, which lasts from Dec. 7 to 18.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said Saturday that preliminary discussions are not moving fast enough for an international decision to be concluded in Copenhagen.

"It is time to give full speed to the negotiations," Rasmussen said, adding he wanted a legally binding international agreement to be in place by January.

In Berlin, some 350 protesters wearing masks with the face of German Chancellor Angela Merkel came together in front of the Brandenburg Gate in the city centre.

In London, more than 600 people gathered beneath the London Eye ferris wheel by the River Thames to arrange themselves into the shape of the number five, according to organizers Campaign against Climate Change.

An aerial photograph of the event will be added to pictures of a giant "3" and "0" from around the world.

"Hundreds of thousands of people are taking part (globally) and for us that’s so important, to have people out on the streets," campaign activist Abi Edgar said. "We want serious action on climate change and we want it now."

Across the Thames, some 100 musicians playing trumpets, trombones, saxophones and clarinets gathered outside parliament to play the same note — an F, made by the frequency of 350 Hz — for 350 seconds, organizers said.

In central Madrid, the Spanish capital, members of the Platform Against Climate Change, comprised of social organizations, ecologists and unions, acted out parodies of the "catastrophic consequences of climate change on the planet,” a news release said.

Protests were also being held in Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary, among other Canadian communities.

In Ottawa, protesters took aim at the Conservative federal government and perceived inaction to reduce the emissions coming from Alberta’s oilsands development.

“Stephen Harper, in particular, seems determined that he’s not going to take this issue seriously and take action,” Waller said.

“Hopefully, there are other leaders in the world who are a little more movable on it. The first step on the level of politics is to agree to a reasonable target . . . to keep us from catastrophic climate change, and that’s not happening yet.”

In Vancouver, 5,000 people surged over the Cambie Street bridge and along Pacific Boulevard for an afternoon of music and festivities, all aimed at bringing attention to global warming.

A giant 100-metre-wide banner made by school students from around the Lower Mainland was hung off the side of the bridge. The banner said: “Canadians Care Cut Emissons Now.”

Of the afternoon’s Vancouver events, the most unique was a large salsa dance performed in the shape of the number 350.

According to Erica Stahl, Hot Salsa, Cool Planet was to connect salsa dancers with the climate-change movement in a celebratory way. She said having hundreds of dancers was symbolic of the fight to save the planet.

They had the salsa dancers move around in the shape of a 350.

“We have quite a large salsa community and we wanted to emphasize the gravity of the issue we face in confronting climate change,” she said.

“We want to send a powerful message to Ottawa. We need fast and deep reductions in the emissions that cause global warming, and we support strong action at the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen in December.”

In Edmonton, meanwhile, a cluster of mitten-clad demonstrators huddled around a DYING FOR CLIMATE LEADERSHIP banner at the Alberta Legislature on Saturday.

Shoulders shrugged against the cold, the group of about 80 lay down on the Legislature steps, symbolically “dying for climate change” so that others might be saved.

“People here are braving the cold, braving the wind, and I think that says a lot,” said Logan McIntosh, the president of the University of Alberta wing of Greenpeace.

Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said earlier this month he has doubts an agreement will be hammered out in Copenhagen.

“Increasingly, people are being realistic — that it’s hard to see a full and complete agreement being arrived at,” Prentice said.

“There’s probably too much work to be done in the time left to achieve that.”

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has been working on alternative bilateral agreements with countries such as India and China, with the aim of reviving a process that appears increasingly deadlocked between developing countries and advanced economies.

with files from Vancouver Province, Edmonton Journal