Waving signs and chanting, about 2,000 people protested in downtown San Diego Saturday as part of an international call for government leaders to combat climate change more aggressively.

“This is the most urgent crisis of our time, and it affects all of us,” said the Rev. Jeanette Bragunier, a United Methodist minister. “We don’t want it to get any worse.”

The “Rise for Climate” event here was organized by SanDiego350 and more than a dozen partners and held in conjunction with almost 1,000 similar rallies in cities around the world, including one in Oceanside, where about 150 people gathered at the pier.

More than 18,000 people marched in Paris and more than 30,000 took to the streets in San Francisco.


Event organizers said they hope to catch the attention of hundreds of policymakers and business leaders who will be gathering in the Bay Area in a few days for a Global Climate Action Summit convened by Gov. Jerry Brown.

“We do not like what is happening and our voices need to be heard,” said Stan Rodriquez, a tribal leader of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel.

Offering blessings in Kumeyaay and English, Rodriguez opened the rally in San Diego, which was held in the Civic Center Plaza and featured music by the St. James Academy Youth Choir and talks by elected officials, faith leaders and educators.

After the rally, the crowd marched along downtown streets — closed to traffic by a police escort — to South Embarcadero Park on the waterfront. They chanted “Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go.” Bystanders took pictures and videos with their cellphones as the lines of people, stretching almost two blocks, swept past.


It was a racially mixed group, young, old and in-between, all united, as many of them said, by a single mother — Earth. James Long, 54, of El Cajon carried a tall papier-mache puppet depicting the planet as a garland-wearing woman with tears streaming down her face.

“I’m very concerned about keeping the Earth healthy for future generations,” he said.

1 / 18 10-year-old Huxley Smith of La Jolla, center, and his dad, Michael Smith, right, along with others carry a protest banner along the route from San Diego Civic Center Plaza to Embarcadero Marina Park South during the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march organized by San Diego 350. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 2 / 18 Steve Keeley of Clairemont was one of the couple of thousand people who participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at San Diego Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 3 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 4 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 5 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 6 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 7 / 18 A prayer and meditation vigil sponsored by the Interfaith Coalition for the Earth Justice was held before the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South began. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 8 / 18 Moira Fitzpatrick of La Jolla, along with others, participate in a prayer and meditation vigil sponsored by the Interfaith Coalition for the Earth Justice that was held before the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South began. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 9 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 10 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 11 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 12 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future.. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 13 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 14 / 18 Rebecca Kay of Ocean Beach was one of the couple of thousand people who participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 15 / 18 Roger Davenport of Oceanside was one of the couple of thousand people who participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 16 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 17 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 18 / 18 About a couple of thousand people participated in the San Diego “Rise for Climate” rally and march that started at Civic Center Plaza and ended at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Organized by San Diego 350, it was one of hundreds of marches around the world to call attention to climate change, climate justice and a fossil free future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)

Others carried signs that read: “We trashed it — we must fix it”; “Do the math: 1 planet, 1 people, 1 last chance”; “We Don’t Have Time for Denial”; and “There is No Planet B.”


Many of the rally speakers and marchers were critical of President Donald Trump, who has characterized global warming as a “hoax.” One of the signs had a picture of him below the wording, “Science is not a hoax. You are.”

His administration has been pulling away from regulations and international pacts aimed at curbing climate change because of doubts about the long-term harm as well as concerns that the restrictions will kill jobs and hurt the economy.

In her remarks Saturday, Lynne Talley, a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said the federal government “is on the wrong side of this” and pointed to the ongoing impact of heat-trapping greenhouse gases on the environment.

The record warm ocean temperatures along San Diego’s coastline this summer “are not an accident,” she said. “Drought is not an accident. The wildfires are not an accident. Glaciers melting are not an accident.”


Several speakers urged people to push for passage of “community choice” electricity in San Diego, arguing that it will give customers more say in the development of alternative energy sources.

They also called for putting pressure on Brown to sign recently passed Senate Bill 100, which requires the state to get 100 percent of its energy from wind, solar and other “clean” sources by 2045.

Brown’s three-day Global Climate Action Summit, starting Wednesday in San Francisco, is aimed at showcasing steps various governments and businesses have taken so far, while encouraging them to do more.


john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com