The People's Climate March: Making Waves as the Largest in History

By Shalen Lowell, Social Media Manager at Watershed Action Alliance. 

Reblogged from, and originally posted on, Shalen Lowell's official blog (Books, Brattle, and Environmental Banter) on September 26, 2014.

This week, hundreds of thousands of people across the globe participated in the People's Climate March, a worldwide civilian activist movement showing support to change UN climate policies, as the UN Climate Summit was held this week. Over 100 world leaders gathered in New York City for the summit, and over 166 countries participated in the People's Climate movement. I had the amazing fortune to be at the largest and most-attended rally of them all: the march right in the heart of NYC.

Me (Shalen) with the Wheaton College Outdoors Club

So, in order to make this all-important pilgrimage, I drove down to NYC with my sister and housemates from Outdoors Club at Wheaton College in Mass. The drive wasn't as long nor as tedious as I remembered (not like when my family and I went to pick up our Bernese Mountain Dog puppy in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York...). We stayed in Queens, thanks to the mom of one of our group who was amazing, hilarious, and very much a boisterous New Yorker. As much as I felt like outsider in the group initially, I adapted quickly, as I usually do, and chatted with one person or another about random topics like Green Shakespeare, job hunting, internships, and my hapless postgrad life.

We drove down Saturday, arriving at night, and decided to make the trek from Queens to the heart of Manhattan for a bit of exploring. While this may seem like a nonchalant journey, between the walking, bussing to the subway, and the long train ride in, it took us over an hour...But once in the city, I was mesmerized by the energy, pulsing out of various restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and concerts, not to mention the sparkling Empire State Building and the One World Trade Center off in the distance. Remembering the smoggy silhouette of NYC as we drove over one of the bridges to Queens, with the skyscrapers just hanging in a casual slump across the harbor, I was momentarily startled at how enormous they were in person. I had been to NYC once in 7th grade, but I didn't remember the city as looming and intimidating as it presented itself. Being in NYC even for two days made me miss the comforting streets and sites of Boston like no other. 

The One World Trade Center, in the distance

Anyway, we went for a quick bite at a Chinese restaurant and poked around Manhattan. Right nearby on this cute little side street, lined with apartments that led into a square-like area that reminded me of the neighborhoods of the sitcom Friends, there was a free jazz concert by a local band, Emefe. I must look into their music more, because their mix of jazz, rock, and pseudo Africana music was unforgettable. They had a cool vibe, and the concert was a nice (and free) way to unwindafter an exhausting and stressful day of travel. Splitting up afterwards, Steph, few friends, and I ate some gourmet berry crunch donuts, passed a Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, and poked around in a bookstore (What else would a recently graduated English major do?) before meeting with the group and trekking back to Queens for a much needed sleep,the ten of us piled on various beds, couches and floors.

The very next day, September 21st, was THE day: at last I was ready to step out for one of the most worthy causes I know, supporting the comprehensive revision of global climate change policies. The People's Climate March in NYC kicked off the Climate Summit this week, and in this participatory event, it was the US peoples' time to shine, to show our strength in numbers, and to reaffirm our commitment to environmental justice. The overcast and rainy day did not deter the 400,000 plus people amassing along the edge of Central Park, preparing for the march. I felt this magical and inexplicable moment as we exited the subway, seeing students, elders, activists, environmental organizations, and regular people alike with a plethora of signage, banners, shirts, hats, anything proclaiming their support of the march. I felt a sense of camaraderie immediately with these people I did not know, people I only saw in passing. An older woman came up to our group and asked where we were from (to which we answered Boston, Mass.), and she congratulated and praised us for coming out to support the climate march. She asked for our picture and told us she was "ecstatic these issues are reaching the younger generations. It makes me so happy to see young adults involved." Goosebumps passed all over me as I realized this was for sure not going to be my last march: I found my calling in environmental justice all over again, and I was meant to do this.

Packed together like sardines,
awaiting the start of the student march!

We were then off to stand in the student section of the march, so we walked 40 blocks up to 81st street where the student section of the march congregated. The walk there was a sublime and surreal experience, as the activity in the normally bustling New York City was halted--all for the sake of supporting this hopefully life-changing climate summit. We walked by Lincoln Center (Project Runway!), briefly Radio City Music Hall, and afterwards the edge of Central Park. We spent a draining amount of time standing around and waiting for the earlier portions of the march to spread out and reach us, so random and rambunctious chants broke out across the crowd as the anticipation mounted and I grew increasingly eager and anxious for the march to begin! Our group mingled with the crowd, and conversed with random strangers about the cause, why we were here, from where we came, etc. This one gentleman was marching with a wheelbarrow full of ice, an interactive prop to represent the melting ice caps of the North (as the day grew on and the ice itself melted). The whole drive and sleep-deprived weekend lead up to this moment and I wanted it to just start already! At 12:58pm exactly, the chatter and small talk ceased completely for a stark moment of silence, hands raised, for those people across the globe who have been affected and continue to be affected by the deleterious effects climate change.

With sore feet and our moods beginning to sour with anxious waiting, our group decided to cut around to the sidewalk and start marching ahead to where the crowds were moving. We huddled on the edge of a short trail off of Central Park until we FINALLY saw the crowds moving! This was our cue to jump in and begin to march. 

The next couple hours were a complete blur of color, chanting, chatting with random people, and dancing to a fantastic marching band a vets group had as a feature in their group march. One of the aspects I was most struck by was the diversity of groups: you have the vets, members of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, a crowd of particularly vocal Socialists (in which group we accidentally got caught up...), a Free Palestine movement group, various college students from across the country, church congregations, grandparents, parents, and children, anyone and everyone you could imagine. That's the wonderful and sobering fact about the Climate March: people of all ages, generations, ethic, social, political, and religious backgrounds came together, united, in one significant and unifying cause. Events such as this actually give me hope for the future, one which before I was convinced was very bleak. 

The chaos and color of the march

Popping in and out of the march consumed most of our afternoon, resting here and there on the sidelines. Out of the corner of my eye in the latter half of the afternoon, I saw a splash of purple stick out among the crowd, and my immediate reaction was, "Stonehill!" At first I thought I was hallucinating, immediately associating any color of deep purple with my own alma mater, but sure enough a bit farther along in the march, I saw it again, and yes! there were students with Stonehill shirts and sweatshirts! The realization was enough to perk me out of my stupor, but then I caught a glimpse of Professor Mooney, my Stonehill Environmental Studies adviser, and for whose LC I TAed last semester! I felt such a comforting wave of palpable relief, recognizing such a familiar face among a crowd of strangers on this exhausting trip. I was SUPER happy, what are the chances out of 400,000+ people in that march that day, that I would see the Stonehill group? Unreal and amazing. She was certainly ecstatic and surprised to see me there too as we embraced; it was an unforgettable and incredible coincidence. I'm so glad I saw Corina there too, I really miss her. I miss Stonehill very much: not the nearly unbearable stress that academic life demands, but the experiences, friends, casual chats about environmental policy and literary criticism which consumed my undergrad days.

What were my motivations for attending the march? I walked for my future, for my children's future, for us all, but most importantly, for the global ecosystem. I walked to recommit myself to preserving and protecting the Earth, preventing further harm from befalling it. Finally, I walked to demonstrate my commitment to the watersheds of Southeastern Massachusetts, and the Watershed Action Alliance, the watershed nonprofit for which I work. I cannot wait to march in more movements in the future, and this one in particular was such an incredible opportunity. How does it feel to be a part of history made, to be a part of something bigger than myself? Indescribable.

To find out more about the People's Climate March, you can visit their site here: http://peoplesclimate.org/.

Don't forget to follow me (Shalen Lowell) as well as WAA on Twitter, and as always please feel free to like, share, and reblog my post!