People's Climate March

Over the weekend, my mom, my sister, and I went to New York City for the People's Climate March. There were an estimated 400,000 people there and it was the biggest climate march in history! We arrived at 81st Street to begin the march at 10:00 (the march started at 11:30) and there were already crowds of people waiting to march. In fact our subway car was jam packed with marchers, banners, and cardboard tubes (the NYPD only allows cardboard tubes for holding up signs, no sticks.) In the subway we saw a kid, about five years old with a poster twice his size made from taped together paper that said "SAVE THE SHARKS." He was wearing a plastic knight helmet and
had a plastic sword -- hopefully the NYPD makes exceptions to their cardboard tubes rule for knights.


 There were different groups that you could march with depending on where you started the march. We started all the way  back at 81st street in the brown section on the map below. Just to the to the beginning of the march we had to go 25 blocks from our starting location. We didn't start moving until around 2:00 because it took so long for all of the people in front of us to get moving.

At 12:58 there was a moment of silence for everyone who has already suffered as a result of climate change. I was certainly skeptical about whether this was going to work, thinking that it was not possible to get this many people to collectively fall silent. But they did. As 12:58 approached, people began to remind each other to quiet down, and in a matter of seconds all you could hear was a distant siren. To be with that many people in total silence was awe inspiring. At 1:00  from the distant front of the crowd came sound. Whooping and hollering, drums banging and people screaming, raising the alarm about the climate crisis. Like a wave the distant sound swelled and poured towards us, flowed around us and engulfed us as 400,000 people raised their voices together.