By NOAH RANKIN
Over 130 Cornellians walked the People’s Climate March in New York City — the largest climate march in history, with over 310,000 participants.
The march, which began at approximately 11:30 a.m. Sunday, was timed to coincide with the United Nations summit taking place on Tuesday in Manhattan, where representatives will discuss a “potential global agreement on emissions,” according to The New York Times.
Maria Jiang ’16, an organizer of the Cornell trip to the march, said she saw the event as “a chance to lend our voice to the conversation.”
“I think from the start, the people behind the march forecasted this as the largest climate march ever,” Jiang said. “We’re coming together when the U.N. was meeting in New York City this week and it was really a chance to say that our vote matters, that we care and we have a voice … and when world leaders come together to discuss important issues and climate change issues, we have an opinion to say.”
Jiang, who is also a member of Cornell’s Green Revolving Fund, said the march was significant due to magnitude of the event and the many voices that could be heard.
“Definitely the best thing I think is seeing all the differing opinions on how we can approach the issue of climate change and how we can solve the problem,” Jiang said. “We had over 130 people from Cornell going — two and a half buses full — and in total, we received a text message from the organizers that said there was a preliminary count of 310,000 people that came. If you look up the numbers for marches before, this is record-breaking by like six times.”
Hundreds of thousands march through New York City Sunday for the People’s Climate March. Damon Winter / The New York Times