Sonoma County marchers urge climate change action

Katie Price didn’t wave a sign on Sunday as she marched down Santa Rosa Avenue with more than 100 other people to raise awareness about climate change. Instead, she pushed a stroller carrying her 6-month-old daughter.

“I’ve always felt passionate about climate change,” Price said. “But having her increased my level of fear.”

Worrying that her daughter will have to face the effects of an altered climate, like prolonged drought, flooding and food shortages, prompted her to march, she said, walking with her parents, Nancy and Kevin Conway, as well as a friend she recruited.

“I think this is the time to act.”

She and other Sonoma County residents were participating in one of a series of events large and small, dubbed the People’s Climate March, held around the world two days in advance of a United Nations climate summit in New York. That’s when more than 120 world leaders will convene for a meeting aimed at galvanizing political will for a new global climate treaty by the end of 2015.

The rallies are meant to pressure global leaders to agree on meaningful steps, such as reducing carbon emissions, that would help prevent the planet’s temperature from rising further.

“This is the key issue of our lifetime,” said Ann Hancock, executive director of the Climate Protection Campaign, at Santa Rosa’s march. “The science makes it clear how urgent it is.”

The largest rally, in New York City, drew more than 300,000 people, according to organizers. It is considered to be by far the biggest climate change demonstration in history. Elsewhere, about 40,000 marchers took part in an event in London, while a small gathering in Cairo featured a 50-foot art piece representing wind and solar energy, organizers said.

Nearby, marches took place in Sonoma, San Rafael and Oakland.

In New York, a contingent from Moore, Okla. - where a massive tornado killed 24 last year - took part, as did hundreds of New Yorkers affected by superstorm Sandy, which the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British meteorological office said was made more likely by climate change.

In Santa Rosa, the historic California drought was on many marchers’ minds, including that of Elisa Abrica, 37, and her three daughters, ages 7 to 21.

“All these climate changes, they are scary,” she said. “We’re not taking care of the planet.”

Her family was among a broad range of ages, races and professions represented at the march.

“I thought it would be just us old fogeys,” commented one woman who didn’t give her name, surveying the crowd gathering Sunday afternoon before the march at Luther Burbank Home & Gardens. Young children held hand-painted signs with messages such as “‘Leave us a clean planet’ - the kids” and “Save Mother Earth.”

Nearby, Cheri McLean, a 24-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College student who helped organize the march, passed out lime green T-shirts that read, in hand-painted blue lettering, “SRJC Climate March.”

McLean, vice president of sustainability for the student body, said she and SRJC philosophy and religion instructor Carla Grady helped organize the march after seeing a listing for a Santa Rosa event on the website organizing marches across the globe, peoplesclimatemarch.org. The junior college recently adopted sustainability as one of its core values in its new strategic plan, and President Frank Chong supported the college’s involvement in the march, said Grady, who co-chairs the college’s Institute for Environmental Education.

Others learned about the march through environmental groups such as The Sierra Club and social activism websites such as 350.org, and Avaaz.org, which helped organize the worldwide marches.

“It’s a beautiful turnout, I’m stoked,” McLean said, leading enthusiastic marchers on a mile-long trek down the sidewalk along Santa Rosa Avenue to College Avenue and back.

The demonstrators chanted things like, “There’s no Planet B!” and drew mostly supportive honks from passing motorists.

As the march wound down, she said, “I hope there’s more (rallies) to follow … I hope we can make it mainstream for people to start doing things such as this.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Staff Writer Jamie Hansen blogs about education at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach her at 521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jamiehansen.