On the day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly announced that she would block needed reforms to the European Union’s climate package, a crowd of 200 people from more than 20 countries loudly called her and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to task outside the prime minister’s residence in Warsaw. The rally began less than two hours after Merkel entered the building to meet with Tusk about the E.U. package.
For their threats to halt E.U.-wide emission reductions of 20 percent by 2020 unless given the option to hand out extra emission allowances to big German and Polish polluters, Merkel and Tusk both received Fossil of the Day awards. Avaaz.org delivered 126,000 petition signatures to the two leaders from people around the globe, and activists from Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund gave powerful speeches demanding that Merkel and Tusk rescue the economy and the climate simultaneously through green jobs and strong climate protection targets.
But it was young people who made the event possible (a huge majority of those in attendance were in their 20s), and who gave the rally its considerable energy. Anna Keenan of Austr... Read more
