Monday, March 12, 2012

Demonstrators across the world call for urgent action to stop 'climate change catastrophe'

Skiers, fire-eaters and environmental campaigners joined in demonstrations worldwide Saturday to draw attention to climate change and push leaders to take robust action.

From costume parades in Manila to a cyclist's protest in London, marches took place in more than 50 cities across the world to coincide with the two-week U.N. Climate Change Conference, which runs through Friday in Bali, Indonesia.

Hundreds of people rallied in the Philippines' capital _ wearing miniature windmills atop hats, or framing their faces in cardboard cutouts of the sun.

"We are trying to send a message that we are going to have to use renewable energy sometime, because the environment, we need to really preserve it," high school student Samantha Gonzales said in Manila. "We have to act now."

In Taipei, Taiwan, some 1,500 people marched through the streets holding banners and placards saying "No to carbon dioxide." Hundreds marched outside the conference center in Bali. At a Climate Rescue Carnival held in a park in Auckland, New Zealand, more than 350 people lay on the grass to spell out "Climate SOS."

At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, ice sculpture artist Christian Funk carved a polar bear out of 15 tons of ice as a memorial to climate protection.

Christmas markets throughout Germany were switching off the lights, and British cyclists pedaled into Parliament Square in London.

In Helsinki, Finland, about 50 demonstrators ground their skis across the asphalt along the main shopping street, calling for decision makers to give them their snowy winters back.

Fire-eaters blew billowing clouds of flame in Greek cities where demonstrators demanded decisive action against climate change, while protesters sang environmentally inspired songs in the Norway's capital.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who is in Oslo to attend the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony Monday, did not plan to take part in the protest, his spokeswoman Kalee Kreider told The Associated Press.

In London, demonstrators braved cold, rainy weather to descend on Parliament Square, wielding signs reading: "There is no Planet B." Bikers circled the square earlier in the morning to protest the city's traffic and its effect on global warming, organizers said.

The London protest has singled out one particular target _ U.S. President George W. Bush _ calling his administration the biggest obstacle to progress at the Bali talks. Organizers in the British capital plan to underline the point by ending the protest in front of the U.S. Embassy.

"Bush has been forced to change his language on climate, but continues to be the major obstacle to progress," Britain's Campaign against Climate Change said. "We will not just stand by and allow Bush _ or anyone else _ to wreck the global effort to save billions of lives from climate catastrophe."

Washington has found itself increasingly isolated at the climate talks. The U.S. position that technology and private investment _ not mandatory emissions cuts _ will save the planet has taken a beating.

But Americans were just as active in planning to protest Saturday. In Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S. activists prepared to make "polar bear" plunges into icy cold bodies of water.

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Associated Press writers across the world contributed to this report.

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