Climate March

So, Greta Thunberg came to the Montreal climate crisis protest on Friday, Sept 27. I took the day off work to also participate in the protest that claims in some places to have had ~320,000 people and in others, over half a million.

I got to the park on Park at around 10AM there weren't many people, perhaps a few hundred.

The first two examples of signs.

Though 'Change is now' isn't particularly meaningful; one of Greta's signature speech lines is that 'whether you like/know it or not, change is coming'.

I did not have my own sign, but I did walk around and see others.

I did happen to see Elizabeth May (Green Part of Canada leader) getting interview:

The march was supposed to start at around noon, but where I was standing, we only started moving at about 12h30. I, and others, did not follow the route exactly but did end up in the same place. Here are a few more photos.

Near the end of the march I found a spot in the shade where I could sit and see a screen that would show Greta's speech.

The sound system was working at first, just playing music from a local radio station. I got there at about 14h25 and the music played until about 15h15. Throughout this time, more and more people kept coming in and passing by me to continue to the destination. It was just amazing to see how many people were participating in this.
At about 15h15 the screen lit up with a performer on the stage; a person singing and playing their guitar. The sound system, however, was not producing any sound whatsoever. I stuck around for another half hour or so to see if this would get corrected; and it didn't. So I left, figuring that I would undoubtedly be able to listen to Greta's speech from home, later.



Not enough is being done by governments to put in policies that would combat the climate crisis. Individuals can do their part; however, there really won't be any global movement on emissions reductions without governmental action. We are in the midst of a Federal Election here in Canada, and only the Green Party of Canada has an aggressive enough target of CO2 reductions; the other left leaning parties are offering only half measures while the right-sided party is not convincing anyone they have a proper plan for any reductions.

I'd like to think that when V-8 starts high school, about 700 days from today, I'll be able to no longer be a car owner. All three of my kids will have transit passes by that time (as I have one) and so pretty much all of the driving that I do now I'd be able to stop. The occasional trip to Costco could be a transit there/Uber home; the once or twice a year car vacation could be a car rental. It helps that I am within walking distance of a grocery store; and for other shopping, an easy transit trip to a variety of shopping places. Of course there is also Amazon delivery, however, I'm not convinced that the delivery is great for the environment, so it is probably better if I just cut down on the acquisition of stuff.

Anyhow; if there is another well organized climate march on a Friday, I may consider going again. It is doubtful there would be as big of a turn out as for this one, many schools (high schools, CEGEPS, Universities) all closed for the afternoon; and Greta was here, so there were a number of factors that made it so that the turnout was exceptional.