Climate change
Demonstrations held in cities around the world
Activists march as part of a global call to do more to combat global warming./
Activists with the Extinction Rebellion movement blocked roads and staged demonstrations in big cities around the globe Monday, part of a wide- ranging series of protests demanding much more urgent action against climate change.
Demonstrators stopped traffic in cities including Berlin, London, Paris, Amsterdam and New York.
In some cities, activists chained themselves to vehicles or pitched tent camps and vowed not to budge.
“You might come from a variety of different groups, but we all stand against a system that’s destroying the planet and mankind, and we’re looking to change that because we can’t just have little changes; we want a real big change,” said Pierrick Jalby, a 28- year- old nurse from eastern France who joined the demonstration in Paris. “We don’t want reforms, in fact; we want a revolution.”
Members of Extinction Rebellion, a loose- knit movement also known as XR that started last year in Britain, have staged a series of flashy protests this year to demand action on human- created climate change.
In New York City, protesters doused a famous statue of a charging bull near Wall Street with fake blood. Other activists staged a “die- in” in front of the New York Stock Exchange — lying down as if dead while tourists gawked.
“The blood of the world is here,” said Justin Becker, an organizer who made a link between the fossil fuel industry and the financial interests of Wall Street. “A lot of blood has been spilled by the decisions of the powerful and the status quo and the toxic system that we live in.”
Over the weekend in Berlin, demonstrators had set up a tent camp outside German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office to prepare for the protests, reflecting dissatisfaction with a climate policy package drawn up last month by her government.
Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, criticized the group’s tactics.
“We all share an interest in climate protection, and the Paris climate targets are our standard in this,” he told ZDF television. “If you demonstrate against or for that, that is OK. But if you announce dangerous interventions in road traffic or things like this, of course that is just not on.”