We’re going to wrap up our live coverage for the day. Here’s a summary of where things stand:
Hundreds of protesters took over a portion of downtown Manhattan for about five hours Monday in a rally to “highlight the role of Wall Street in fueling the climate crisis”.
Police took a hands-off approach to the rally for most of the afternoon but officers blocked protesters from entering Wall Street at around 4pm and several were pepper-sprayed late in the afternoon.
At least one person was arrested early in the protest. There were reports of pepper spray use by police when protesters tried to enter Wall Street.
The colorful rally was known as Flood Wall Street. Demonstrators wore blue and carried a banner reading “Capitalism = Climate Chaos. Flood Wall Street!”
The protest came a day after hundreds of thousands of people took the streets in Manhattan to call for action on climate change.
On Tuesday the United Nations is scheduled to convene a summit on climate change. US secretary of state John Kerry promised to make climate change a “front and center” issue: “As secretary of state, I promise you I am personally committed to making sure this is front and centre of all our diplomatic efforts”
Tensions between protesters and the police are mounting: the New York Police Department used pepper spray on a group of protesters and some demonstrators have tried to push past the barricades.
Just spoke with another 22-year-old from Boston, his face crusted with Maalox, who says he never saw the pepper-spray coming.
The Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch has filed a story on the protest:
Hundreds of people gathered in New York City’s financial district on Monday, many with the intent of getting arrested as an act of civil disobedience to bring attention to the perils of climate change.
Flood Wall Street demonstrators, primarily dressed in blue to represent climate change-induced flooding, marched to New York City’s financial center to “highlight the role of Wall Street in fueling the climate crisis,” according to organizers.
At least one person had been arrested on Monday afternoon, though the New York police department said it did not yet have official reports on the arrest numbers.
The demonstration comes a day ahead of the United Nations climate summit and follows Sunday’s People’s Climate March – which saw what organizers estimated was 310,000 people marching in New York City, and tens of thousands of others in 150 countries across the world, demonstrating in an effort to put pressure on world leaders to act now to slow the damaging effects of climate change.
StopMotionSolo has a good camera on the current action. Lines of police officers, in standard uniform, are moving into the crowd, introducing new barriers and creating a barricade around Wall Street. There’s jostling between the front line of protesters and police, but both sides seem not to be out for violence. It’s notable that there’s no riot gear present. One person in the crowd shouted “pepper spray”. Zip ties are visible hanging from some officers’ waists.
Police have now dug in to stop the march at Wall Street itself, which runs east of Broadway about two blocks north of the bull. The police have erected barricades to block the street.
The crowd chants angrily, “Who do you serve?! Who do you protect?!”
The protesters are getting ready to move from their position to enter Wall Street proper, apparently timed to the 4pm close of the stock exchange. “Whose streets? Our streets!” the crowd chants.
Police are moving some barricades to allow the crowd to move.
US secretary of state John Kerry promised on Monday to put climate change “front and center” in American diplomacy, raising expectations for this week’s United Nations climate summit. Guardian US environment correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg (@suzyji) reports:
A day before the first world leaders’ meeting on climate change in five years, Kerry said he would take it upon himself to make sure the international community steps up to deal with the threat.
“This is an enormous challenge, and this is why the United States is prepared to take the lead in order to bring other nations to the table,” Kerry said in remarks at the start of a week of climate-themed events in New York.
“As secretary of state, I promise you I am personally committed to making sure this is front and centre of all our diplomatic efforts.”
The commitment offered a much-needed boost to the UN summit, being held on Tuesday.
There’s a marching band at the protest too. Now streaming via StopMotionSolo. Drums and the brass section has at least one trumpet, a sax and two or more trombones.
The UN climate summit gets underway amid a number of dangerous new milestones, Guardian US environment correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg (@suzyji) reports:
Scientists reported carbon dioxide emissions rose 2.3% over last year. The summer months meanwhile were the hottest on record, with 2014 on course to be the hottest ever year.
On Monday, the National Snow and Ice Data Centre reported the Arctic sea ice had reached its annual minimum for the year, retreating to 5.02 million square kilometers (1.94 million square miles).
That was not as low as in 2012 – when sea ice loss in the summer months smashed through satellite records. Last year comes in at the sixth lowest, but the NSIDC said the figures were still below the average since 1981.
The sea ice minimum was also reached two days later than the 1981 to 2010 average, suggesting that the Arctic is experiencing a longer season of open water.
Suzanne adds this context:
The decline of Arctic sea ice cover is seen as one of the starkest signifiers of a warming planet. However, scientists have a harder time interpreting ice action on the opposite pole: the Antarctic.
As the Arctic sea ice cover continues to decline, Antarctic sea ice was on course to set a new record for maximum ice cover this year.
Scientists said that ice cover had already beat the previous satellite record, which was set last year, and was now more than 20 million square kilometers (7.72 million square miles).
The researchers said Antarctic sea ice could expand even further in the coming days, and that the maximum had not yet been reached.Scientists said the expansion of ice in the Antarctic does not disprove global warming - as climate deniers have claimed.
The UN climate science panel, the IPCC, said in their blockbuster report earlier this year that ice processes in the Antarctic remain poorly understood, and it’s not clear why the ice is expanding.
A man was wrestled to the ground by police after running through the demonstration, the Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch (@holpuch) reports from the scene:
Police officers formed a circle around the man and other police officers before he was handcuffed and led away.
“He wanted to break the blockade to get to the Stock Exchange and have the sit-in there,” said Peter Soeller, an intern at Amnesty International who witnessed the incident.
Flood Wall Street organizers had said the sit-in would be taking place at the New York Stock Exchange, though demonstrators had settled two short blocks away on Broadway.
New York City police officers arrest a man taking part in the Flood Wall Street demonstration in Lower Manhattan, New York September 22, 2014. Photograph: ADREES LATIF/REUTERS
Soeller said he had met the man yesterday at the People’s Climate March, where he was walking with a group of anarchists.
Before making the run toward the Stock Exchange, the man had been standing on top of a phone booth in the crowd, assisting with the human microphone.
Protestors fill Broadway in lower Manhattan during a rally and protest called ‘Flood Wall Street’ in New York, New York, USA 22 September 2014. Photograph: JUSTIN LANE/EPA
Protestors fill Broadway in lower Manhattan during a rally and protest called ‘Flood Wall Street’ in New York, New York, USA 22 September 2014. Photograph: JUSTIN LANE/EPA
Protesters take part in the “Flood Wall Street” demonstrations and march on September 22, 2104 in lower Manhattan , preceeding the United Nations’s “Climate Summit 2014: Catalyzing Action” in New York. Photograph: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
Guardian US environment correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg (@suzyji) has more on the news that heirs to the fabled Rockefeller oil fortune withdrew their funds from fossil fuel investments on Monday.
The former vice-president, Al Gore, will present the divestment commitments to world leaders, making the case that investments in oil and coal have an uncertain future.
With Monday’s announcement, more than 800 global investors – including foundations such as the Rockefeller Brothers, religious groups, healthcare organisations, cities and universities – have pledged to withdraw a total of $50bn from fossil fuel investments over the next five years.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund controls about $860m in assets, said Beth Dorsey, the chief executive of the Wallace Global Fund and the Divest-Invest movement, which has led the divestment campaign. About 7% are invested in fossil fuels.
But the Rockefellers’ decision to cut their ties with oil lends the divestment campaign huge symbolic importance because of their family history. The divestment move also helps bring a campaign launched by scrappy activists on college campuses into the financial mainstream.
At 8 a.m., in the General Assembly Hall, the Secretary-General will open the UN Climate Summit 2014. At 11:30 a.m. in Conference Room 4, the Secretary-General will address the press.
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