Australia's climate march, in tweets

Here's how we contributed to what's being called the largest climate march in history.

Graph for Australia's climate march, in tweets

Its organisers are calling it the largest climate march in history, and for what it’s worth, parts of Australia well and truly played their part.

Over the weekend over 2808 demonstrations took place in 166 countries around the world. The march was planned back at the end of July as a New-York focused event to draw attention to Climate Change ahead of a UN meeting on the matter. From here, the march went global, with the event’s main organiser, People’s Climate roping in local partners to spread the movement. The Australian rendition of the event was spearheaded by three activist groups, GetUp, 350 Australia and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

The rally wasn’t a smash success in all of our capital cities. The Melbourne march was by far the largest event.

#Australia really turned out 30.000 in #Melbourne, 4.000 in #Sydney, 5.000 in #Brisbane, 1.500 in #Perth, 1.500 in #Canberra #PeoplesClimate
— People's Climate (@Peoples_Climate) September 21, 2014

This was also evident in photos of the event.

WOW! 30,000 Australians joined the #PeoplesClimate march in #Melbourne today! Amazing images: https://t.co/SehZhlsZaD pic.twitter.com/UhgLouRqod
— Avaaz (@Avaaz) September 21, 2014

But for what Sydney lacked in numbers, it made up for in creativity.

Sydney's message to the world: Move beyond coal and gas! #PeoplesClimate pic.twitter.com/1A0yhbRrGW
— AYCC (@AYCC) September 21, 2014

Unfortunately for Rockhampton, it’s a bit difficult to do anything creative with just a handful of people. They do realise that the two big towers in the background are producing steam, right?

A passionate group rallying in Rockhampton today #PeoplesClimate pic.twitter.com/R1sUkuRHdS
— GetUp! (@GetUp) September 21, 2014

Meanwhile, movement took on its own particular flavor in Townsville, with a tribute to the ongoing battle between the coal industry and the Great Barrier Reef.

Townsville had an incredible #peoplesclimate event today. Did you attend a rally today? pic.twitter.com/CFTDwm0yQV
— GetUp! (@GetUp) September 21, 2014

And how demonstrators managed to pin this sign on the Blue Mountain's Three Sisters is perplexing.

An amazing sight at the Three Sisters this morning! #PeoplesClimate pic.twitter.com/DvvVeLsy1y
— GetUp! (@GetUp) September 20, 2014

But while Australia came out in force for the event, we need to keep our efforts in perspective. It seems Australians care more about Climate Change than some developing nations.

Here are some numbers from the global actions: 4.000 to 5.000 in Rio, 1.500 Madrid 2.000 Barcelona, 2000 to 2.500 in Delhi #PeoplesClimate
— People's Climate (@Peoples_Climate) September 21, 2014

And perhaps more than some parts of Europe

@Peoples_Climate and 40,000 in London, 4.000 in Berlin, 8-9000 in Paris, plus thousands more in the rain & hail in Stockholm, Amsterdam..
— 350.org Europe (@350Europe) September 21, 2014

But the main event was by far the biggest.

Next time someone says no-one cares about #ClimateChange, show this pic! #PeoplesClimate via @lsarsour pic.twitter.com/fnWp1HiI7k
— Jim Harris (@JimHarris) September 21, 2014

UPDATE: Final count from NYC march is 400,000! #PeoplesClimate #PeopleClimateMarch #ClimateMarch
— People's Climate (@Peoples_Climate) September 22, 2014