I’m feeling a bit disheartened. There were not very many people at the Auckland climate march. Maybe a few hundred? I feel a bit disappointed about this. Don’t people care? It feels a bit like that right now. Perhaps I’m just down because it’s the end of a week with lots of disappointing news.
The people who did go were in good spirits though and very friendly. It was a peaceful walk up Queen St from Britomart to Aotea Square. The highlight for me was being able to walk along Queen St which is usually for cars. I have always thought Queen St should be for pedestrians only so it was nice to experience this just once.
Auckland put on its usual display of fickle weather: torrential rain one moment, gale-force winds the next, and bright and sunny 10 minutes later. There was a tent at the start of the walk which nearly got blown away. I took this photo of a poor fellow clinging to one of the poles (see the guy in the orange rain coat):
And this lovely lady brought the poles but her sign-bearing friend failed to show:
Daniel managed to pinch a sign from someone else at one stage but look at the wording on it – anthropomorphic rather than anthropogenic!!! We should have made our own sign. If we had it would have said: “Creepers against climate change”.
Elizabeth and Ben in the spirit of the event. And don’t for one minute think that I dragged Ben along with me. He was a willing participant and his views align with mine on this issue.
The view on Queen St:
It was nice for the kids to witness the peaceful expression of something we both feel passionate about and also to see people fulfilling their right to express their views even though so few New Zealanders seem to care.
rachel.blog 
Keep the faith!! Our Mother Earth needs you 🙂
Thanks, Revdele. I just need a good sleep and I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow.
I know hitting ‘Like’ lazily won’t make any difference. I wish I could be there but you know, life happens and yada yada yada.
Likes certainly help 🙂
One of the biggest stumbling blocks is the belief that we cannot make a difference and it’s not worth the effort. I’ve watched that view perpetrated upon people since the 1980’s when rallies were huge. The optimistic note is that some persist and new generations join in. It is well worthwhile because it encourages others.
Voting Green was once thought to be a waste of a vote, but it encouraged the party to continue and last election we got our first Green Party MP. Persistence does pay off, it’s just rather too slow compared with the span of an individual life. When it all gets a bit too much, well the world managed without me for a very long time, I’m sure it can manage if I take a break now and then. 🙂
As usual you’ve hit the nail on the head, Graham. I loved seeing your post about the London march too so I’m going to put a link here for others who are interested to see:
http://freedfromtime.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/climate-change-rally-london-2014/
Thank you. 🙂
Rachel — I share your disappointment. Went to the rally today with a friend and one several weeks ago. Both times not much of a roll-up. Today’s one was better. It was heartening to see quite a lot of ‘oldies’. I must check out the other capital cities to see how they went. It would be so wonderful if thousands upon thousands turned up. It might send a message to governments that they can’t blithely ignore. Meanwhile, back at the coal mines, they’re digging furiously to get as much of the stuff out before China stops buying. An absolute disgrace.
That’s disappointing about Canberra but I suppose not surprising given it’s primarily filled with politicians.
Twenty thousand in Melbourne. Don’t know about Sydney or Brisbane etc.
I just saw the turnout in Melbourne and that’s wonderful. If I ever move back to Australia that’s where I’m going 🙂
The turnout in Brisbane was in the thousands which is terrific:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/thousands-attend-brisbane-climate-march-20140921-10jx2t.html
The Sydney march was also in the thousands. Have a look at the human sign they made in Sydney:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/21/climate-change-rallies-held-across-australia
Thanks for the links. I’m surprised but pleased that Brisbane had such a good turnout. Agree with you about Melbourne. A very interesting city. Beautiful parks. Lygon Street is wonderful. Great markets too. Weather isn’t the best but I suppose you can’t have everything.
Fickle lot aren’t we? Nothing like a raindrop to make us say “Aw no. I won’t go. It’s hosing down.”
Perhaps that’s the reason. I’d like to think that more people were planning to show up but that they just couldn’t get there for some reason.
Creepers are in favor of a blasted, bleak landscape and are happy in any biome, ideally if the sun is covered by dark cloud. A bit like US republicans, except you’d rather meet a creeper face to face..
Haha. I think you’re the only person who knows what a Creeper is. I probably should have provided a clue in my post. So for anyone still wondering what a Creeper is, it’s a character in Minecraft that looks like a green penis with four testicles.
Will ensure that this image of a four-testicled green penis remains in my memory for many years to come.
You know, I’d never thought of them like that.
you’ll have seen how big the London march was, and I don’t know if you’ve seen pictures of New York too? People do care… weird how it’s not such a big thing in NZ… Melbourne seemed to have a big turn out.
Hi Rachel! I am new to blogging and just stumbled across yours. I am from St. Louis, MO and I am sad to say that there is not much talk about climate change here. On a better note I am almost done with a book called, Before Their Gone…by Michael Lanza. It is one of the first books I have read about climate change and I must say my interest is peaked. I have been following the news from New York this week as well. The book has been opening my mind and I am looking to get more information and see not only what I can do on a personal level, but on a larger level. If you have any good books, links, etc. that would be great. As I said I’m new to this topic, sadly, but looking to get educated and help get others motivated!
Thanks for the comment and the book recommendation. I just looked it up and it looks good. I got interested in climate change a couple of years ago when I heard some people saying things about it which didn’t sound right. So I dug a bit deeper and it made me so cross to see the misinformation out there about climate change. I found it hard to remain silent on the issue after that. All the best with your new blog! Blogging is addictive.
[…] etc. Being new to blogging, I stumbled across a great blog yesterday with an article entitled “Creepers Against Climate”. It was wonderful being able to reach out to a fellow blogger and share thoughts, and hopefully […]
I lived in the New York City area and the climate march here was quite a success, thanks for providing an international perspective. Is climate change a less talked about issue in New Zealand in general?
I saw footage from the climate march in New York and it looked fantastic. I would have loved to have been there.
Climate change is not really a significant issue in this country. The march was also one day after the general election here and so people were much more interested in the election result than anything else. It’s also a small country with a small population. I’ve heard it said that New Zealanders are the passionless people in that they tend not to protest about things or get involved in politics. There may be other reasons but they’re all just excuses. It was disappointing.