The Global Climate Movement is here!

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Today has shown us one thing, as reports, photos, and videos stream in from around the world, that the global climate movement we have been waiting for is here and ready to demand action from world leaders. We didn't expect this kind of a response, as two weeks ago, we were expecting a fairly modest (We thought it was big at the time!) turnout of a couple hundred events in a few dozen countries.

I am blown away by how in just one week we went from under a thousand events to what we ended up with, 2,400 events in over one hundred and twenty countries. People came out and make noise with pots and pans in Dehli, Horns in Nepal, Alarm clocks in London, and cell phones in New York. The unity of the actions around the world show that civil society is united in one demand, for a fair, ambitious, and binding deal in Copenhagen this fall. Let us hope that world leaders got the call and take an example from this show of global solidarity.  

The stories that have streamed in are incredible, like that of Iris Andrews, a member of Avaaz.org, that called the UK prime minister's switchboard and found herself on the phone with Prime Minister Gordon Brown himself! She said Brown had told her he "understood her fears about climate change," and that he would be going to Copenhagen. In fact, you can listen to their call yourself [2].

She wasn't the only caller to reach a decision maker herself, as Avaaz has been collecting on their Wake Up Hub, all kinds of stories. We heard from one caller who got through directly to the Australian Environment Minister Penny Wong, and wrote "I don't think I was the only person to ring her as she seemed to understand what this was about and said okay she'd pass on the message [to Kevin Rudd], she sounded weary".

We also got a few surprises today, with the Yes Men printing out "spoof" New York Post editions about climate change, blanketing the city and getting all kinds of people reading a "spoof" newspaper with true articles about the dangers of and opportunities involved in global action on global warming. 

Take a look at the photos that have streamed in from all over the world and check out Avaaz's hub for all the breaking information about the Wake Up Call.