People's Climate March Brings 311,000 to New York City

The largest demonstration supporting climate change action in world history hit the streets of New York City yesterday, when the People's Climate March brought a crowd of 311,000 participants to Manhattan--more than triple pre-march estimates of 100,000. Hurricane Sandy survivors, labor unions, youth groups, congregations from across the religious spectrum and social justice campaigners marched with UN Secretary General Ban Ki–Moon and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, along with celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon–Levitt, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, and Sting. "This is the planet where our subsequent generations will live," Ban Ki–Moon told reporters. "There is no 'Plan B,' because we do not have 'Planet B.'" Around the world, hundreds of thousands more joined 2,646 events in 156 countries, in a strong show to world leaders that people world-wide demand serious action on climate change at Tuesday's important climate summit in New York City. That meeting, called together by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, brings together world leaders from government, finance, business, and civil society to galvanize and catalyze climate action.  The Secretary-General has asked these leaders to bring bold announcements and actions to the Summit intended to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize political will for a meaningful legal agreement to be negotiated in Paris in December 2015.


Figure 1. People protest for greater action against climate change during the People's Climate March on September 21, 2014 in New York City. The march, which calls for drastic political and economic changes to slow global warming, was organized by a coalition of unions, activists, politicians and scientists. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)


Figure 2. Climate protesters hold a banner reading ' Let's be the change' on the Republique's square during a demonstration to fight climate change, on September 21, 2014 in Paris. Image credit: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images.


Figure 3. Marchers come down 6th Ave during the People's Climate March on September 21 2014, in New York. Image credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Quiet in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific
It's quiet in the Atlantic, where none of our reliable models for predicting tropical cyclone genesis shows anything developing over the next five days.

In the Eastern Pacific, Polo has dissipated. A well-organized tropical disturbance (99E) a few hundred miles south-southeast of Acapulco, Mexico was given 5-day odds of development of 80% by NHC in their 8 am EDT Monday Tropical Weather Outlook. Our reliable computer models keep 99E offshore of the coast of Mexico this week as the storm heads west-northwest to northwest, parallel to the coast of Mexico.

In the Western Pacific, Tropical Storm Fung-Wong made landfall in southern Taiwan Sunday morning with sustained winds near 55 mph, knocking out power to 40,000 customers and killing one person. Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said one remote observation site in the mountains of southern Taiwan recorded 995 millimeters, or nearly 40 inches, of rain Saturday through late Monday morning local time. Fung-Wong brushed the northern end of the Philippines' Luzon Island on Friday morning with sustained winds of 45 mph, bringing torrential rains that flooded Manila and killed eleven people. The storm is headed north towards a third landfall on Monday evening in Zhejiang Province, China.

Jeff Masters