Avaaz.orgThousands of activists Monday called out world leaders for their loads of lip-flapping and foot-dragging on climate action. Literally. The voicemail message they left? Quit hitting snooze and wake up to the threat of climate change.
This “Global Climate Wake-Up Call” — a part of Climate Week NYC — is targeted at the gobs of Very Important People flocking to New York City this week for the 2009 U.N. Summit on Climate Change, as well as the G20 leading economies meeting in Pittsburgh. The hope is that actions taken this week by the aforementioned VIPs will set the agenda for a successful international accord at Copenhagen in December.
Avaaz.org, as part of the TckTckTck climate campaign, pulled together the more than 2,000 separate events in approximately 128 countries, which consisted of “flash mobs” of citizens — some dressed in green suits or even pajamas — sounding their cell phone alarms and calling key politicians, asking them for “a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty” at the Copenhagen climate summit. Calls in the U.S. were aimed at President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Get a closer look at an event in New York.
Watch Iris, a young British climate activist, make this call to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who actually answers and commits to going to Copenhagen.
For an on-the-ground perspective, check out some of the top photos of Wake-Up rallies from around the world in the slideshow below.
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The Wake-Up Call is coordinated along with another call-to-action: the one-night-only global premiere of the film, The Age of Stupid. Find out more about the film, watch the Grist interview with the director, and search out a screening near you.
But that’s not all that’s going on in climate activism: Sunday afternoon in Central Park, New York, 1,300 international activists gathered to form a human countdown to action on climate, gearing up for the Global Wake-Up Call. Watch it happen:
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For more juicy details than you could ever dream of: follow our coverage of Climate Week 2009 on Twitter and in the news.
