The world has felt like a depressing place recently with conflict and slaughter on our screens from Iraq, Syria and Gaza. Yet standing among 400,000 people in New York on Sunday I was filled with a sense of profound hope for the world. I was in the Big Apple to take part in the largest ever mass mobilisation to raise awareness about climate change and attend the UN Climate Summit of world leaders taking place today.
Standing among the throng of people in New York, as well as the hundreds of thousands of others around the world (including 40,000 in London), I was struck by what a unifying power a common enemy can be. On Sunday, not only were there groups of Methodists and Baptists rubbing shoulders with Catholics and Presbyterians, there were Christians marching with Muslims, Jews, Pagans, Atheists and Baha'i. Anti-capitalist protesters stood alongside 'Concerned Moms for the Climate', doctors, firemen and vegans held banners next to indigenous people and victims of Hurricane Katrina. Almost every conceivable strand of society was represented in the huge column of humanity which snaked its way through the high rise blocks of Manhattan. There was even the odd celebrity thrown into the mix, with Leonardo DiCaprio taking to the streets in New York and Emma Thompson in London.
