Thousands rally for environment
2007-12-08 17:05
London - Environmental campaigners called for demonstrations worldwide on Saturday - from costume parades in Manila to bicycle protests in London - to draw attention to climate change and push leaders to take robust action.
Hundreds of people rallied in the Philippines' capital - wearing miniature windmills atop hats, or framing their faces in cardboard cut-outs of the sun.
"We are trying to send a message that we are going to have to use renewable energy sometime, because the environment, we need to really preserve it," high school student Samantha Gonzales said in Manila. "We have to act now."
In all, marches were planned in more than 50 cities across the world on Saturday, to coincide with the two-week UN Climate Change Conference, which runs through to Friday in Bali, Indonesia.
In Taipei, Taiwan, some 1 500 people marched through the streets holding banners and placards saying "No to carbon dioxide". Hundreds marched outside the conference centre in Bali. At a Climate Rescue Carnival held in a park in Auckland, New Zealand, more than 350 people lay on the grass to spell out "Climate SOS".
At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, ice sculpture artist Christian Funk carved a polar bear out of 15 tons of ice as a memorial to climate protection, according to Greenpeace.
Christmas markets throughout Germany were switching off the lights, and British cyclists pedalled into Parliament Square in London.
Bush singled out
Organisers of the protest in London have singled out one particular target - US President George W Bush - calling his administration the biggest obstacle to progress at the Bali talks. They plan to underline the point by ending the protest in front of the US Embassy.
"Bush has been forced to change his language on climate, but continues to be the major obstacle to progress," said Britain's Campaign against Climate Change. "We will not just stand by and allow Bush - or anyone else - to wreck the global effort to save billions of lives from climate catastrophe."
Washington has found itself increasingly isolated at the climate talks. The US position that technology and private investment - not mandatory emissions cuts - will save the planet has come in for a beating.
But Americans were just as active in planning to protest on Saturday. In Fairbanks, Alaska, US activists prepared to make "polar bear" plunges into icy cold bodies of water
- AP