Flood Wall Street climate change protest holds ground in lower Manhattan – as it happened

Sit-in protesters dressed in blue manage a flood-like spectacle:

(Thanks to Guardian social media editor @kaylaepstein)

A striking aerial view of a banner at the protest, via Democracy Now. The banner reads: “Capitalism = Climate Chaos. Flood Wall St!”

The sit-in appears to be staying put for the moment.

Rally organizers tell the crowd: “We think it’d be a good idea to stay here awhile. Do you think it’s a good idea?”

The crowd cheers its assent.

An organizer continues:

We’re gonna order pizza... this is an opportunity to get to know one another better. Maybe strategy conversations about how do we take this home. It’s also an opportunity to talk about collective power. Our movement still has a lot to learn. And we can learn from one another. One of the things we need to learn about: How [inaudible] white privilege and those of us who are male to learn how to open space instead of taking it for ourselves.

This movement is growing. The communities most affected are rising up. [inaudible] together to create the space to [inaudible].

Now we’re going to break into small groups.

The Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch reports a police action against a member of the rally.

The live-streamer StopMotionSolo has just filmed a scrum of police around a protester who had climbed atop a bank of public telephones. The protester appears to have been arrested.

The journalist George Joseph shoots a photo:

I’ve spoken with Adam Gabbatt at the Flood Wall Street protests. He describes the scene:

[There are] Several hundred [protesters] certainly, although it’s difficult to make a guess. The protesters walked up from Battery Park... It’s a very colorful protest, a lot of people dressed in blue, there’s flags, there’s two large balloons which have “carbon bubble” written on them... People have staged a sit-in, they haven’t done it on Wall Street, which was their intention, but just here by the bull.

“Everything has been relatively calm here today, that I’ve seen,” Adam says.

Some of America’s pro-sustainability companies are making campaign contributions to climate-change deniers in Congress, writes Bruce Watson for Guardian Sustainable Business. Are they double dealing or victims of a flawed political system?

According to oft-cited statistics, climate scientists are 95%-99% certain of climate change – about as certain as they are of the link between smoking and lung cancer. Nonetheless, an estimated 58% of US Republican congressmen claim to be unconvinced of it. This group, the so-called “climate denier caucus,” is a big part of the reason that meaningful climate activist legislation keeps getting shot down. And according to a recent report, some of America’s most popular companies are helping to fund the effort.

Forecast the Facts and Sum of Us, two sustainability oriented NGOs, recently released “#DisruptDenial,” a report outlining the corporate contributions to the 160 members of the climate denier caucus in Congress. According to them, these legislators have received $641m in campaign contributions from US companies, including $98m in 2014. [...]

Other contributing companies, however, are actively pursuing sustainability agendas. For example, General Electric (GE) – which donated $1,756,457 – announced plans last year to reduce the energy intensity of its operations by 50% by 2015. Similarly, Google, whose efforts to fight climate change have included a $1bn contribution to developing renewable electricity, contributed $699,195 to congressional climate deniers, including US senator James Inhofe, a Republican from California, and US representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from California.

Read the full piece here.

As our live blog coverage continues, here’s a summary of where things stand:

• A crowd of climate change protesters estimated to number in the hundreds marched into the financial district in downtown Manhattan on Monday to “highlight the role of Wall Street in fueling the climate crisis.”
• The protesters are currently conducting a sit-in on Broadway around the Charging Bull statue at the top of Bowling Green park. There is a heavy police presence but so far no arrests have been reported.
• The protest is called Flood Wall Street. “The people gonna rise like the water, gonna calm this crisis down / Hear the voice of my great-granddaughter, saying shut down Wall Street now” is a ubiquitous chant.

More demonstrators sit down in the street. “Mic check! Sit down! Get down for justice! Thank you!”

Another consistent chant:

The people gonna rise like the water

gonna calm this crisis down

hear the voice of my great-granddaughter

saying shut down Wall Street now

The demonstrators have congregated around the Charging Bull statue at the top of Bowling Green park. Many demonstrators are sitting on Broadway, which divides at the bull.

“Mic check!” yells an organizer. “We’re gonna hang out here for a little while.”

The police so far are allowing the protest to proceed without warning of arrests or making a move to contain the protesters in the streets. The bull is surrounded by barricades.

The UN General Assembly is hosting a noon briefing in advance of tomorrow’s summit on the climate. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls for “all hands on deck”:

(h/t @kaylaepstein)