Peoples' Climate March, Geneva
On 28 November 2015, just before the opening of the UN Climate Change
Conference in Paris (COP21) where I would be speaking in four
events for the International Environment Forum, Geneva joined many
cities around the world in organizing a peoples' march for action on climate
change. A similar march was organized last
year to accompany the 400,000 who marched in New York before the UN
Summit on climate change. This year a crowd estimated at 5,000 people of all
ages, from infants in strollers to the elderly, accompanied by two brass
bands, marched from the square beside the railway station across the
Mont-Blanc Bridge and down the main street for banks and luxury goods to the
square between the university and the opera house. Similar marches were held
in hundreds of cities around the world in support of the French, whose
marches in Paris and elsewhere had not been approved for security reasons.
For pictures of the march from the organizer's web site, see http://climat21.ch/photos.html
Assembling in the Place de 22 Cantons
near the Cornavin Station
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Place de 22 Cantons, with the crowd gathered in different directions
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The march begins down Chantpoulet to the Avenue du Mont-Blanc
Marching down the Avenue de Mont-Blanc to the lake
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When the first marchers reached the lake, the last were still leaving
the Place de 22 Cantons
Crossing the Pont du Mont-Blanc
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Crossing the Pont du Mont-Blanc where the Rhone River leaves Lake
Geneva, with the Jet d'eau in the background
Marching through the main commercial centre of Geneva
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Right: Greenpeace activists draped the parked cars with "climate
police" banners
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Marching down the Rue du Rhone in the commercial centre of Geneva
Assembling at our destination on the Place de Neuve
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After a one hour march, it took about 20 minutes for all the marchers
to reach the destination
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Some marchers gathered to form a giant heart; others shouted
political slogans
Various orators addressed the crowd from the steps of the Grand Theatre
(opera house)
We all dispersed in a good spirit, appreciating how well the weather had
cooperated, since rain had been predicted.