9/20--Lower Manhattan

Beautiful day in NYC today. Went to meet up with a friend at the Catholic Worker soup kitchen in the East Village this morning, then went to lunch. Afterward, walked around awhile, found a park to sit and visit. Saw a sign in a window: "One bedroom apartment: $3500.00" That's per month! I guess gentrification has hit even here.

Signs for the Climate March posted all over the city. UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon has said he will join the march.  And literally hundreds of related activities going on both before and after the march. News reports say that organizers are hoping for 100,000 people but, honestly, I think that would be a disappointment.

Spent awhile hanging out in Washington Park in lower Manhattan. An amazing place. All of humanity-- the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful-- was there. Hundreds of people just enjoying the beautiful day, several street musicians playing in different corners of the park, lots of folks, including me, taking pictures. The scene made me think about what will happen to that place and all those people if we are not able to arrest global warming. It was just announced that the average concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has hit an all-time (in human history) high. But walking around Manhattan makes one realize what a huge undertaking it will be to change so much about the way we live, the way we do things. Again, it seems that only action at the top levels of government could possibly spur that kind of change in the time that it is needed, meaning the next couple of decades. That's why this march and all the thousands of other activities around the world are so important.

I've learned about another event on Monday called "Flood Wall Street" which is not officially connected with the climate march. It will involved thousands of people dressed in blue who plan by their sheer numbers to disrupt "business as usual" for those who profit from the despoiling of the environment. Rumor has it that some of these activists will engage in civil disobedience in order to try and get their message across. I plan to join those who will be making a visible statement by wearing blue and converging on the area, but not to take actions that could risk arrest, though I sympathize with those who do. I hope and pray that there is no violence associated with this action.

All day tomorrow are numerous events collectively being called the Climate Convergence: teach-ins, performances, forums, etc. You can find a schedule of those events at http://convergeforclimate.org/schedule.  You can also find a list of events around the country and the world at http://peoplesclimate.org/global/. Like the tag line for the climate march reads: To change everything, we need everyone.