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News  Sep 22, 2014 – 1:49 pm EDT

Iqaluit residents join worldwide climate change protest

“Politicans need to know the world is watching”

By THOMAS ROHNER

A small group of Iqalungmiut hold up signs in front of the elder's centre Sept. 20 to join in a global campaign to encourage world leaders meeting to discuss climate change at the United Nations in New York this week to curb use of fossil fuels and cut CO2 emissions. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)


A small group of Iqalungmiut hold up signs in front of the elder’s centre Sept. 20 to join in a global campaign to encourage world leaders meeting to discuss climate change at the United Nations in New York this week to curb use of fossil fuels and cut CO2 emissions. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

They waved green hearts at passing motorists. They engaged passersby in conversation. And they laughed heartily at each other’s jokes.

About a dozen Iqalungmiut joined hundreds of thousands of people around the world Sept. 21 in a global movement to put pressure on world leaders meeting in New York City for a UNited Nations climate summit Sept. 23.

“We felt it was important that Arctic voices are represented today,” Bethany Scott of Iqaluit told Nunatsiaq News in front of the elders centre as she held a banner which read, “snow + ice worth saving.”

Twitter users at events around the world — more than 2,700 events in over 160 cities, according to the official website — dominated conversation on the social media network. The hashtag #peoplesclimate was tweeted almost 20,000 times per hour at its peak, according to hashtags.org.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited world leaders to the summit “to bring bold announcements and actions… that will reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize political will,” the UN website said.

The summit falls outside of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, but that didn’t stop high profile people from participating in events around the world.

Former United States vice president and climate change activist Al Gore posted this aerial video of the New York City march:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also joined marchers in NYC:

Thousands of people gathered at Toronto’s Dundas Square:

From Barcelona, a message in the Catalan language:

And Hong Kong:

A woman in Seattle carried a similar message:

Back in Iqaluit, protesters put down their banners and picked up four garbage bags of trash as a symbolic — and useful — gesture.

“Politicans need to know the world is watching,” Taha Tabish said at the protest. “We need action, we’re not taking this passively.”

Greenpeace activists with business suits over their wet suits, pose on an ice floe northwest of Svalbard, Norway, as part of their Save the Arctic campaign. They are urging world leaders to take action and commit to a transition to renewable energy during the Sept. 23 United Natons' climate summit in New York. The heads are, from left, Barack Obama, Britain's David Cameron, Stephen Harper, Germany's Angela Merkel, India's Narendra Modi, France's Francois Hollande and Russia's Vladimir Putin. Members of Greenpeace recently met with UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, during which they presented him with a six-million signature petition calling for long-term protection of the Arctic region. Ki-Moon told them:


Greenpeace activists with business suits over their wet suits, pose on an ice floe northwest of Svalbard, Norway, as part of their Save the Arctic campaign. They are urging world leaders to take action and commit to a transition to renewable energy during the Sept. 23 United Natons’ climate summit in New York. The heads are, from left, Barack Obama, Britain’s David Cameron, Stephen Harper, Germany’s Angela Merkel, India’s Narendra Modi, France’s Francois Hollande and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Members of Greenpeace recently met with UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, during which they presented him with a six-million signature petition calling for long-term protection of the Arctic region. Ki-Moon told them: “The Arctic, and the oceans, our our lifelines and the source of our future.” (PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN ÅSLUND/GREENPEACE)

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