Thousands Rally London for Climate Deal

(AP)  Thousands of people calling for a deal on climate change at next week's United Nations conference in Copenhagen marched through central London on Saturday, encircling the Houses of Parliament in a human wave of blue-clad demonstrators.

London's Metropolitan Police said about 20,000 people joined the Stop Climate Chaos march, which began at Grosvenor Square and wound its way to the Parliament building on the River Thames. Organizers put the turnout at 40,000.

"We wanted to make a positive statement," said retired teacher Pip Cartwright, 72, from Witney southern England. "It's for the future. It's not my generation that's going to have the problem to solve."

The coalition - which includes groups such as Oxfam, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the WWF - called the protest "The Wave," and organizers asked marchers to dress in blue. The march ended with a mass "wave" around Parliament. Thousands more people attended climate protests in Glasgow and Belfast, as well as in European cities including Brussels, Paris and Dublin.

"The U.K. government must fight for a comprehensive, fair and binding deal at Copenhagen - that is our demand today and we expect it to be fulfilled," Oxfam GB chief executive Barbara Stocking said in a statement. "They must return home with a strong, effective climate deal both for our own sakes in the U.K. and for the millions of poor people already suffering from the effects of climate change around the world."

Also on Saturday, Britain's Met Office said it would publish some of the data it uses to analyze climate change, after thousands of pieces of correspondence between some of the world's leading climate scientists were stolen from the University of East Anglia and . Skeptics of man-made global warming say the mails prove that scientists have been conspiring to hide evidence about climate change.

On Friday, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, said the issue raised by the e-mails was serious and would be looked at in detail.

Most climate scientists say their content has no bearing on the principles of climate change itself, but the leak - just before the Copenhagen summit - has been politically explosive,

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday that "the scientific evidence is strong" and it was essential for a deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen

He said those opposing action were "anti-change, anti-science, anti-reform, almost flat-Earth" groups.

Met Office spokesman Barry Gromett said data from 1,000 weather stations around the world, covering 150 years, will be released early next week. The office has written to 188 countries to ask for permission to release more data from a further 4,000 stations.

Ahead of the march through central London, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offered prayers for negotiators in Copenhagen and urged people not to listen to those who say there's a choice between "looking after human beings and looking after the Earth."

"If we make ourselves a bit less comfortable, if we draw back from a little bit of our space and liberty so that others may have the space and comfort they need for life, thank God," Williams said.

Later, a group of climate activists pitched tents amid the fountains and statues in central London's Trafalgar Square to draw attention to the upcoming summit. Police said they were in contact with the Camp for Climate Action protesters, who planned to stay for about 48 hours.

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On the Web

Camp for Climate Action: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/
Friends of the Earth: http://www.foe.org/
Greenpeace International: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/
Oxfam International: http://www.oxfam.org/
Stop Climate Chaos: http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/
The WWF: http://www.wwf.org/

[DawnBroderick40]

Didn't they just find out that the global warming nuts hid all sorts of evidence that would refute their stupid claims? The earth is going through all sorts of natural, cyclical changes. People just don't realize that this whole global warming debate (I get a kick out of the people who want everyone to read all the research papers but are too lazy to type it out and type GW, hysterical) is based on money, money that will line the pockets of big corporations poised to benefit off of all this hype.

You can march all you want for your little protests. Decisions have already been made and you can all go home and drink water out of your plastic bottles and let the water run while you brush your teeth; you know you do. It's your dirty little secret. What a joke. If you actually think a protest will envoke change, you're wrong. Nothing happens that those in power don't want to happen.

[troutfishyman]

by Cyber998 December 6, 2009 3:10 PM EST
"How about this - why don't you try reading some of the actual published studies on the subject?"

That's far too much work! Can't the research papers be put into 2 minute FOX news report format? Then we can give our definitive, unquestionable opinion.





LOL! Great idea, and it will be presented by a bubble-headed beauty to make it more palatable.

[ubrew12]

Anyone who doesn't think GW is real and will soon require significant alterations in the ways we go about our business, I have four words for you:

Warren Buffett, Burlington Northern

(rail is by FAR the most energy-efficient way to transport material on land. Long haul trucking, which all but killed rail a few years ago, is going the way of the dinosaur. Of course, you could bet against Buffet... LOL)

[Cyber998]

It's funny reading some of the comments from the anti-GW fools.

They can't be bothered to read through long and boring research papers, so just call the whole thing rubbish on top of baseless accusations.

If you've read the science and don't agree that's one thing (and there really aren't many). If you've never read a single research paper (no, media reports DON'T count) then why exactly do you expect people to listen to you?

At some point the anti-GW people need to back up their accusations. Just "I've heard theres an email which says X" doesn't cut it.

[troutfishyman]

by gearhead1000 December 6, 2009 2:45 PM EST
sheep, all of them. Perhaps some of you brainwashed global warming nuts would wake up if you would watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stij8sUybx0



LOL ... now we need youtube videos?

How about this - why don't you try reading some of the actual published studies on the subject?

[Cyber998]

"How about this - why don't you try reading some of the actual published studies on the subject?"

That's far too much work! Can't the research papers be put into 2 minute FOX news report format? Then we can give our definitive, unquestionable opinion.

Just like with the Knox murder, we'll believe a 2 minute news report over an 8 months trial any day!

[gearhead1000]

sheep, all of them. Perhaps some of you brainwashed global warming nuts would wake up if you would watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stij8sUybx0

But I know you wont. "You call yourself green because you are to yellow to admit your red"

[lmartink]

It's not to late for you to go back and get that GED.

[ubrew12]

My problem with Monckton is he can't seem to separate his fear of 'community action' against GW with his 'science' on GW. When a guy starts his 'science' talk by quoting Scripture (in Latin, no less), you know you're in trouble.

I'm sorry that GW remediation is going to require unprecedented cooperation between countries, similar to the effort to battle ozone depletion. But, THAT effort worked, and we didn't all fall into communism, so why wouldn't this work similarly?

[troutfishyman]

by robjones3 December 6, 2009 2:27 PM EST
Sounds like you have bought into Big Al's Gospel. Why does Gore refuse to debate on the subject?




Gore is just a strawman for the right wing ideologues. You don't understand the science, so you instead attack Gore. I do understand how it works....

[robjones3]

You are calling the chief spokesman for man-made global is now a strawman for the right wing? That's funny.

[ubrew12]

On youtube, there's ONE major news outlet that completely takes the GW skeptic point of view, and pushes it every chance it can: 'Russia Today'

The CRU emails were hacked out of Russia, and first posted to a website from there.

Russia's entire economy hinges on OIL.

I don't think these three facts are unrelated. GW skeptics like to say they are just independents who decide for themselves. But, I have to wonder, given Russia's obvious advocacy against climate change action: who's the comrade now?

[Cyber998]

If you can't discredit the evidence, discredit the witness.

It's a basic lawyer technique and the lawyers for the Energy corps are pushing it home.

[troutfishyman]

by Smartdoc December 6, 2009 1:13 PM EST
Global Warming is a FRAUD perpetrated by Gore and accomplices to steal money from taxpayers and place it into their own pockets.



WOW! So somehow he organized thousands of scientists all over the world, starting at least 50 years ago. He was about 10 years old then. Then he got them to fabricate data and publish their studies in peer-reviewed journals all over the world. And THEN he somehow got the glaciers to start melting and artic tundra to thaw to make it even more convincing!

One of the greatest hoaxes of all times!!!

[robjones3]

Sounds like you have bought into Big Al's Gospel. Why does Gore refuse to debate on the subject? Is he a preacher, a policitican, a scientist? Be leary of things that don't stand up to scrutiny, or refuse to stand up to scrutiny in this case. That goes for about the entire liberal agenda, btw. They either become unhinged or stonewall upon being questioned. We are seeing this every day now. Interesting that proposed remedies to climate change theory fit so nicely with a socialist agenda. What a coincidence!