By Terry Odendahl, President and CEO
Late last month, President Trump signed an executive order to reverse President Obama’s climate change efforts and revive the coal industry, pulling back American leadership in international efforts to take action on global warming.
On Saturday, April 29th, 100 days into the new U.S. administration, hundreds of thousands around the world will take to the streets of Washington D.C. and cities around the world, to raise their voices to call for climate action and to demand justice for all.
To march for action on climate change is not a new development, but this time the circumstances and the urgency of the situation are very different.
In September 2014, an estimated 400,000 people flooded the streets of New York City to demand action on climate change. The gathering was cited as the largest climate march in history, and marked an important step in uniting voices for change. The 2014 march marked the beginning of international momentum to act on climate.
Now that momentum is being reversed, and it’s up to you and me to resist.
Our Global Greengrants Fund contingent will join the April march, this time in Denver, Colorado, to stand in solidarity and call attention to the solutions being implemented by those on the front lines of the struggle to save our shared planet. We will also march in resistance of the U.S. administration’s recent actions and sheer negligence of the immediacy of our global situation.
Why are we marching again? What is different now, almost three years later?
In 2014, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, met with delegates from around the globe to discuss international efforts to address climate change. Since then, change at the international level has gained momentum, with the Paris Agreement as a result of COP21, and the ratification of the Agreement by the United States and China in 2016.
However, the Paris Agreement was never enough. 196 countries and leaders around the world now acknowledge the climate crisis and the need to hold the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C, real action and progress has been slow and limited.
But at least there was progress. Now the world is taking a step backwards.
President Trump campaigned with a promise to ‘cancel’ the Paris Agreement. I don’t doubt that Trump will keep his promise, if the most recent executive order is any indication.
If we want to stop climate chaos, the need to listen to local people taking action is more important now than ever before. Their voices need to be heard.
On April 29th, Global Greengrants Fund will take to the streets to call for justice and elevate the voices of those who experience the impacts of devastating droughts and disappearing coastlines firsthand, and for a global movement to bring about change from the bottom up. Join us, and join the movement.