Sea of lights in Copenhagen as 100,000 supporters of climate action rally for a real deal

It is the most inspiring thing I have ever seen. A stream of lights for as far as the eye can see is weaving through the streets of Copenhagen, as the participants of the largest climate march and rally in history hold candles to remind world leaders of their hope for a real deal to solve climate change.

The march and rally caps off a a globe spanning day of over 3,000 marches, rallies, and vigils.

On the 12th day of the 12th month, at the halfway point of the Copenhagen climate talks, the sun rose on rallies of tens of thousands of people in Australia and has been setting on thousands of vigils from Myanmar to the Arctic.

The day started with a rally in the Parliament Square downtown, and inspiring speeches by many leaders of the climate movement, including a passionate one by TckTckTck's chair (and new Greenpeace Int Executive Director) Kumi Naidoo, above.

As the diverse crowd of 100,000 marchers flow through the streets on the Bella Center, where the climate talks are being held, Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu is leading a vigil inside. A vigil to inspire world leaders to remember the generations that will inherit a world forever shaped by the consequences of climate change.

From the air, Copenhagen is a sea of light from the candles that visually represent the hopes of the more than 11 million people that told world leaders that they are ready for a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty in Copenhagen.

The crowd is incredibly diverse as it is made up of danish supporters of climate action and the unprecedented number of civil society representatives from thousands of organizations that have come from all parts of the world for the United Nations climate negotiations.

Civil society leaders and young people from developed and developing countries came together to ask their leaders to definitively action on climate change. The rally marches through Copenhagen

As they gathered outside the Bella Center, they were addressed by leading civil society leaders, such as Kumi Naidoo, the chair of the TckTckTck campaign, Deepa Gupta, director of the Indian youth climate network, and former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson.

At the mid-point of the Copenhagen climate talks, let’s hope that world leaders recognize that this unprecedented outpouring of citizen support as the tipping point the need to lead and that the world is ready for a real deal.

Here are some photos from this amazing, positive, creative day in Copenhagen where the world took notice!

Creativity abounds at the Copenhagen march