GREEN ACTIVISTS RALLY IN CANADA

[Anonymous]

Green activists rally in Canada
Demonstration in Montreal, Canada
Thousands of people have demonstrated in the Canadian city of Montreal to demand action on global warming.
The demonstration was timed to coincide with a United Nations summit on climate change in the city.Earlier, thousands of people marched through London in a protest which ended at the US embassy.Environmental groups are critical of what they see as the inadequate response of governments to the threat of global warming.
Delicate manoeuvring
Five groups, including Greenpeace and the Climate Crisis Coalition, delivered a petition to the US consulate in Montreal, the Associated Press reports
Climate change:
The petition, signed by 600,000 Americans, calls on the Bush administration and the US Congress to help stop global warming.
Canadian Inuit of the Arctic north, including hunters, trappers and elders, have travelled to Montreal to take part in the demonstration.
“We’re worried about climate change, about ways of life in the Canadian Arctic disappearing,” said Sarah Binder of Montreal’s Urban Ecology Center.
Marches had also been expected in Washington, Sydney and Johannesburg as part of an international day of action on global warming.
Delegates from 189 countries are at the 10-day conference to consider how to meet the Kyoto Protocol targets and what measures should follow when these expire in 2012.
The Kyoto agreement, which came into force earlier this year, requires industrialised nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2%.
The US, the world’s biggest emitter, is not a signatory to Kyoto, saying it is costly to introduce and that the agreement is flawed.
BBC environment correspondent Tim Hirsch says the coming days will see delicate manoeuvring to find ways of bringing the US and key developing countries into discussions about future action on global warming, without asking them to commit themselves to firm targets and timetables.

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December 5, 2005 at 10:28 AM