Connecticut is expected to be well-represented at Sunday's People's Climate March in New York City.
Organizers say this will be the largest climate change protest in history. Connecticut labor unions, along with environmental, peace, and faith-based groups, will join over 1,400 groups nationwide in the march. It's estimated that at least 1,000 people from Connecticut will attend. The Connecticut Sierra Club says they have filled eleven buses to New York City so far.
The march coincides with Tuesday's global summit on climate change called by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Marchers hope to pressure world leaders to come up with a comprehensive strategy to combat global warming.
We are 48 HOURS away from having the largest climate march in history! Watch and get more excited https://t.co/XYcPWXumzD #PeoplesClimate
— Peoples Climate (@Peoples_Climate) September 19, 2014
The Connecticut Fund for the Environment's Sarah Ganong said that what makes this march so powerful is that each group can choose to focus on issues of climate change that affect them personally.
"Contingents from other areas are talking about other things," Ganong said, "and everybody is able to talk about how climate change is influencing them in their lives, rather than some sort of top-down message coming from a national organization. It's really local and focused. I think that is what's so powerful about bringing this to individual people, and why so many people are interested in going to this particular march."
Starting at 11:30 am on Sunday, marchers will walk along a two-mile route through midtown Manhattan. At 1:00 pm, after a moment of silence, marchers will be encouraged to make as much noise as possible, an act organizers are describing as a burglar alarm for people who are stealing the environment's future.
Metro-North has agreed to add more cars and offer discounted fares to Connecticut marchers on Sunday.
