East Enders Join in Climate March

The People’s Climate March, a mass gathering in New York City Sunday aimed at compelling governments and the United Nations to take dramatic action to address climate change, drew more than 300,000 demonstrators, including some from East Hampton.

The march was attended by such noteworthy figures as former Vice President Al Gore, who has long sounded the alarm about climate change and scientists’ increasingly dire warnings about its potentially devastating impact on civilization, and New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who recently announced a plan to increase energy-efficiency standards of all public buildings and reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

The march preceded a climate summit meeting at the United Nations on Tuesday. Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, who presided over that meeting, also attended the march, which was one of more than 2,400 coinciding demonstrations in 150 countries.

Among those drawn from East Hampton were representatives from the East End Climate Action Network and Renewable Energy Long Island, a not-for-profit organization promoting clean, sustainable energy use and generation.

“There was definitely a lot of East Hampton people there,” said Scott Bluedorn, an artist and member of the East End Climate Action Network who attended the march. “It was really overwhelming to see that many people with that one message.”

Gordian Raacke, Renewable Energy Long Island’s executive director, agreed. “It was awesome,” he said. “It really showed that people care about our future and our calling for action. It was really encouraging to be amongst 300,000 or more friends that all fight for the same thing that we have been fighting for. And to have the U.N. secretary general marching with the people was really reassuring.”

Mr. Raacke marched with signs touting East Hampton Town’s goal, announced in May, to meet 100 percent of its electricity needs with renewable energy sources by 2020.

The message, he said, attracted the attention of many marchers who vacation or have friends on the South Fork. “We can serve as an example to other towns, and people around the Island andthis problem and we can solve it by switching to 100-percent renewable energy sources,” he said. “This is really catching on and East Hampton is at the forefront of it. It makes me really proud of this town.”

Don Matheson, a member of the East End Climate Action Network and the Long Island chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, was similarly cheered by what he saw at the march. “As a 66-year-old man I was very gratified to see that a large, large number of the people were young,” he said. He observed “huge shipments of college-age people from all around,” he said, “and that bodes well for things changing.”

Mr. Bluedorn, who is 28, estimated that a large majority of the marchers were indeed young adults, but participants also included indigenous people from around the world. “That was pretty moving,” he said.

Citizens Climate Lobby advocates for a program in which a tax would be levied on fossil-fuel energy sources with all proceeds directed to United States taxpayers. Prior to Sunday’s march, James Hansen, a noted climate scientist, professor at Columbia University, and former head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, announced that he was going to march with that group, Mr. Matheson said. “He felt C.C.L. had the best first solution that should be implemented right away,” he said. “It’s a program that would both initiate a large reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and help the economy. There’s no economic reason not to do it.”

Mr. Raacke applauded the positive messaging that characterized the march, rather than dire predictions and a feeling of hopelessness over government inaction. His posters depicting the goals set in East Hampton were indicative of the mood, he said. “Leading with a solution is really much more empowering than pointing out the problem. Offering people a way out of this crisis is what’s needed, and that’s what we’re doing here in East Hampton.”

The Climate Action Network, said Mr. Bluedorn, should “build on this momentum.” The march, he said, brought to him the realization that climate change “is such a massive thing that you can’t do it alone. Everyone needs to participate in some way. I want to encourage people to always think about what they can do personally, what they can change, to move this mountain, which is climate change.”

“I’m hoping that this signals a new era,” Mr. Matheson said of the march. “I’m going to do everything I can to see that that happens.”