“Change only happens when people rise up to demand it.”
That is one of the principal rallying cries of environmentalists around the world who are gearing up for a historic mobilization aimed at highlighting the devastating effects the climate crisis is already having on vulnerable communities—and demanding a just transition to a world without fossil fuels.
“We need an immediate phase out of fossil fuels and a 100 percent renewable world where renewable energy develops alongside increased equity.”
—350.org
“At the core of the fight to tackle the climate crisis is a concern for protecting communities and families—we need to accelerate to a renewable energy world without leaving behind the people who build the economy and power this inevitable transition,” noted 350.org, one of the groups that helped organize the 500 Rise for Climate events in over 70 countries, which are set to take place next Saturday.
“We need an immediate phase out of fossil fuels and a 100 percent renewable world where renewable energy develops alongside increased equity, such as the free exercise by workers of their rights to organize for careers that allow them to sustain their families and live and work in healthy and safe workplaces and communities,” 350.org continued. “The crossroads we are at for climate, jobs, and justice in the United States has never been clearer.”
But next weekend’s events—which will kick off just four days ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit—are hardly U.S.-centric.
In addition to headline events in San Francisco and New York City, thousands are also planning to mobilize in Africa, Latin America, Canada, and Europe to demand that their leaders commit to ambitious action to confront the climate crisis at a time when right-wing governments are doing all they can to undermine environmental protections.
“Real climate leadership rises from below,” organizers of the worldwide demonstrations declared. “It means power in the hands of people not corporations. It means economic opportunity for workers and justice and dignity for frontline communities that are the hardest hit by the impacts of the fossil fuel industry and a warming world.”
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