Why am I going to the People’s Climate March in Ney York City? Because my grandchildren’s future is at stake.
On September 21, thousands of people from all over North America and the world will send a powerful message to world leaders to come up with bold solutions to prevent dangerous climate disruption. The March starts at Central Park and world leaders in the General Assembly of the nearby United Nations headquarters will, we hope, take note of this outpouring over the climate crisis when they convene on September 23 for the UN Climate Summit. We know that UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon will urge leaders to take greater action than we did to defeat the Nazis in World War II.
Photo: Anthony Ketchum
I, along with other members of For Our Grandchildren, will join Dr. James Hansen, former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute and author of Storms of My Grandchildren, along with a dozen of our friends from the Norwegian organization, Grandparents Climate Campaign. Dr. Hansen has been at the forefront of the battle to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, which is contributing to global warming, for decades. And a battle it has been. The Bush Administration even cut out parts of Dr. Hansen’s early report before releasing it!
Even if a million marchers descend on Manhattan on September 21, filling a large section of Fifth Avenue, we might still end up with another ‘Copenhagen’ when world leaders meet in Paris in 2015: that is, no legal obligations to reduce greenhouse gases radically. We all know there is enormous pressure to maintain the status quo. But our hope is that our leaders will show the courage to face up to civilization’s dire threat — and recognize the warning signals from the climate emergency which we are already experiencing.
We senior citizens have an ace up our sleeves. We tend to vote. Our hope is to reach out to other grandparents to send a strong and compelling message to their elected representatives to take effective action to transition to a clean energy economy — for our grandchildren.
Photo: Anthony and Mary Ketchum
Like other grandparents, my wife and I are looking forward to a positive future for all grandchildren. The march on September 21 could be the start of a quiet revolution as all of us begin to comprehend what the space travellers have told us for years: there is only one fragile, jewel of a planet that sustains life as we know it, and we have the responsibility to care for it, not poison and exploit it.
Anthony Ketchum is the Founder of For Our Grandchildren, a Toronto-based organization that connects and empowers grandparents and prospective grandparents who are concerned about the impending effects of climate change.
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