PHOTOS: Protesters Around The World Target Fossil Fuel Industry
They came on kayaks and on bikes. They hunkered down in hammocks and on train tracks. They marched at refineries and did morning yoga at mines.
For nearly two weeks, demonstrators on six continents gathered to protest climate change — and, in particular, the fossil fuel industry.
An oversized puppet of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders stands above demonstrators at the March to Break Free from Fossil Fuels on Saturday in Los Angeles.
In Washington state, 52 people were arrested Sunday after they camped out on train tracks servicing oil refineries in northern Puget Sound, Ashley Ahearn of member station KUOW reported for our Newscast unit.
One of the arrested protesters, 24-year-old Elizabeth Claydon, told Ahearn she'd never been arrested before. "Corporations are not complying and not changing and government is not acting fast enough, so I'm going to continue to do this as long as I need to," she said.
The march in Washington was part of a coordinated effort called Break Free 2016, which included protests and marches in Australia, Germany, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia and Nigeria, among other places.
The organizers say that between May 3 and May 15, tens of thousands of people participated around the world.
More than a week ago, in Australia, hundreds of protesters on kayaks and other boats blockaded the Newcastle port — one of the world's biggest coal export ports, according to The Guardian.
A group of protesters shout as they block shipping access to Australia's largest coal port in Newcastle during a demonstration against coal and fossil fuels on May 8.
In the U.K., activists reportedly shut down the country's largest open-pit coal mine.
In Germany, they broke into a coal-fired power station and blockaded the nearby Welzow Sued open-pit mine.
Activists from the environmental organization Robin Wood tied hammocks to a railway bridge on Sunday during a blockade of the coal mine company Vattenfall's Schwarze Pumpe power station near Spremberg, Germany.
A cellist plays as anti-coal mine activists attempt a railway blockade near Spremberg, Germany, on Saturday.
Last week in Nigeria, protesters reportedly gathered at the country's first oil well. And this weekend in Albany, N.Y., protesters targeted crude oil trains.
Opponents of oil trains and barges that service the Port of Albany paddle along the Hudson River on Friday in Albany, N.Y. The demonstration was part of the Break Free from Fossil Fuels movement.
In Chicago, they marched on a BP refinery, and in Los Angeles, they took to the streets.
Last month was the hottest April ever recorded in global history. It was also the third month in a row to not only set a global heat record, but break the existing record "by the largest margin ever recorded," The Guardian reports.
9(MDE1MTIxMDg0MDE0MDQ3NTY3MzkzMzY1NA001))
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad