Hundreds of Southern California residents from North Hollywood to Long Beach joined the movement to push for comprehensive global and local legislations to regulate practices affecting the environment such as fracking and gas emissions.
Residents gathered at the Los Angeles City Hall to support the Global Climate March movement in conjunction with the COP21 United Nations climate change conference in Paris.
The Global Climate March movement was led by the worldwide organization 350, which focuses on advocating for climate justice and protection of the environment for a better future. According to 350, there were 175 countries in participation and 2,300 marches taking place to influence leaders at COP21.
“I think this march is really important as the Paris negotiations can possibly lead to a crucial global climate treaty,” said Jeff Lassanske, member of the SoCal 350 coalition. “I have some optimism, but our leaders have to see a global mobilization of people advocating for climate change and it gives leaders who want a stronger climate treaty more leverage.”
While 350 is a global movement, Angelenos had their own demands for the Eric Garcetti and Jerry Brown administrations, including a decreased dependency on natural gas, and an increase in renewable energy alternatives and water conservation in the midst of California’s drought.
Gov. Jerry Brown is currently in Paris at COP21 alongside 190 world leaders advocating for climate change action and presenting California as a prime example of gas emission reduction. According to the California Environmental Protection Agency, emissions have dropped 7 percent since 2004.
“As far as policy is concerned, I’m not very happy about what they have been doing,” said Iris Lovelace, environmental activist and Signal Hill resident. “They say they’re doing one thing but then you see someone like Garcetti who went from 20 percent to 40 percent natural gas demand. Instead of decreasing, he wants to increase it and that’s his version of changing to clean energy.”
Locally, Lovelace is also part of various organizations such as Stop Fracking Long Beach to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of fracking on their communities and push for legislation.
“If you know Signal Hill, you know there are oil wells all over the place,” Lovelace said. “Stop Fracking Long Beach is doing a good job trying to bring it to the attention of the community and we’re having lobby meetings with city council members to educate them because its like they’ve never heard of fracking until we walk in the door.”
Before the march, leaders from organizations such as California Against Fracking and SoCal 350 coalition took the stage to rally Angelinos to join the cause against fossil fuels and advocate for renewable energy.
Supporters of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders were prominently present in the crowd, as he’s claimed to be the only candidate fully advocating for climate change reform, unlike his opponents Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson.
The COP21 conference will continue until Dec. 11 as leaders attempt to reach an agreement to keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius.