On Sunday, September 21, 18 Dickinsonians participated in the largest ever People’s Climate March, which supports stricter emission regulations and demonstrates the need for environmental change now. With a historic record of approximately 400,000 participants, this year’s Climate March was held over a 2.2-mile area in the heart of New York City.

10 of the students are part of Earth Now and the other eight came from Professor Strock’s Introduction to Environmental Science: Natural Ecosystems and Human Disruption class.

The purpose of the march was to show policy makers that the people want strict emission regulations and that they are intense about this problem being tackled now. At the march, a petition was presented with over two million signatures demanding action on climate change.

“I’ve never done any sort of rally or political protest,” said Jessica Poteet ’15. “But when change happens in history it’s because of people gathering in groups and demanding it.”

The People’s Climate March was the largest climate march in history, drawing in big names such as former Vice President Al Gore, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, the presider of the UN Climate Summit this week in New York.

Because of the large crowds, the Dickinson students woke up at 6 a.m. to travel to New York City, and arrived on campus around 11 p.m. When they got to the city, the students joined the other protesters on the street and were waiting a while before the front of the march began to move.

“It was really energizing to be [at the march] with so many people who had the same passion and concern for climate change, and I thought it was a concrete thing that makes a difference. Maybe more so than ‘I live in the treehouse’ and ‘I don’t use a dryer,’” explained Poteet.