Tens of thousands of Australians have demanded stronger climate action as world leaders gather in Paris on Monday for the United Nations climate summit.
Australia kicked off a series of #peoplesclimate marches that were trending top nationally on Twitter through the weekend and are expected to make today (Sunday) one of the biggest days of action on climate change in history.
Australians have taken to the streets across the country, with huge crowds marching in Sydney and Melbourne, big turnouts from local Pacific Island communities, and a huge diversity of people joining the call to action from Cairns to Castlemaine and Bunbury to Byron.
More than 2,000 climate events are planned in cities across the world including Jakarta, Berlin, London, Sao Paulo and New York.
Doctors, nurses and other health groups from across Australia and New Zealand have been among those marching, including as part of the Doctors for Climate Action coordinated by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten last week upped the ante for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, promising to take a steeper cut in emissions to the 2016 election. Here’s his speech. The hope of course is for Australia to do a Canada, reversing course on climate change.
Check out Guardian Australia’s live blog of today’s marches and see these Periscope interviews by Croakey’s Melissa Sweet at the Canberra march, with physician Dr Ashwin Swaminathan and Professor Dorothy Broom . See at the bottom of the posts for video links.
And below, a selection of tweets from marches across Australia this weekend.
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The lead-up
Melbourne
Sydney
Canberra
Across Australia
On the frontline….health
On the frontline….Pacific Islanders
Croakey (& Croakey family) in action (including great pix from Mitchell Ward)
And more ….
And finally a call for heroism
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On Periscope
