Greenpeace Joins Largest Day of Global Climate Action in History

The events are part of over 5,000 global actions in 181 countries taking place for the October 24th International Day of Climate Action sponsored by 350.org.

Greenpeace USA Executive Director Phil Radford spoke at the Chicago Climate Action rally and march outside of  “Chicago’s Dirty Secret,” the Fisk Coal-Fired Power station – not only one of Chicago's biggest global warming polluters, but also an iconic representation of dirty energy’s disregard for community well being. Photos will be available at http://usaphoto.greenpeace.org/20091024DayOfAction/Chicago/

“Dirty energy is giving asthma to kids in President Obama’s hometown and pushing our planet toward a global warming catastrophe,” said Radford, “It’s time for Obama to live up to his promises to return science to its rightful place and stop letting coal and oil industry lobbyists write our nation’s energy policy. The world can’t afford anything less.”

Greenpeace organizers, student activists, and volunteers were a part of hundreds of other events around the United States, including a rally at the St. Louis Arch where hundreds of people called for climate leadership from President Obama. Photos available at http://usaphoto.greenpeace.org/20091024DayOfAction/StLouis

In Southern California, hundreds of people stretched up and down Manhattan Beach in a human tideline to demonstrate where sea level will rise if actions are not taken to halt disastrous climate change. Photos will be available at http://usaphoto.greenpeace.org/20091024DayOfAction/LA

In North Carolina, hundreds marched to Governor Perdue’s mansion in Raleigh to call on her to cancel the Cliffside coal fired power plant being constructed by Duke Energy in Western North Carolina. Photos will be available at http://usaphoto.greenpeace.org/20091024DayOfAction/Raleigh/

In New York, participants joined a March for Climate Leadership from Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge.  The group was addressed by Robert Swan, a climate activist and the first polar explorer to walk to both the North and South poles. Photos will be available at http://usaphoto.greenpeace.org/20091024DayOfAction/NY/

The events are part of a global day of action coordinated by 350.org to urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions.  Scientists have insisted in recent years that 350 parts per million is the most carbon dioxide we can safely have in the atmosphere. The current CO2 concentration is 390 parts per million.

These global actions come six weeks before the world’s nations convene in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to draw up a new climate treaty. Already, 89 countries have endorsed the 350 target, as well as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, the world’s foremost climate economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, and Nobel prize-winner Al Gore.

Images of the events from around the world were featured on giant video screens in Times Square in New York as part of a 350 countdown, and are accessible at 350.org as part of an online photostream. Visual documentation from the Day of Action will be delivered to the United Nations on Monday.

###

CONTACT: Joe Smyth, 831-566-5647, joe.smyth@greenpeace.org

For High Resolution photos, contact bmeyers@greenpeace.org

Photos from more Greenpeace organized events will be available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeace350/

For more information about the day of action, 350ppm, and photos from around the world, please go to http://www.350.org/media