According to organisers, tens of thousands of people took part in the national climate demonstration in the city of Bern on Saturday. They called for immediate climate protection.
The unusually long demonstration started at 2:30pm with a slight delay not far from Bern train station, as a reporter from the Keystone-SDA news agency reported. The destination was the Bundesplatz. The organisers spoke of over 60,000 participants.
Participants formed several demo blocks on topics such as health, agriculture and outdoor activities. They wanted to illustrate that the effects of the climate crisis are already being felt in all areas of society.
The main demand of the rally was climate justice. The climate crisis is further exacerbating the inequalities that already exist at the global level, it said in a call. The countries of the Global North caused the crisis, the worst consequences of which would first affect the people in the South.
“The forest is burning, the Arctic is melting, politics is sleeping” could be read on one of the many handwritten banners. “If the climate were a bank, we would have saved it long ago,” was written elsewhere on a piece of cardboard.
The Swiss Climate Alliance called for the demonstration. According to its own information, it includes over 140 organisations from the areas of environment, development, churches, youth, trade unions and consumer protection.
Swiss financial markets are invested in all of these places. Multi-nationals founded and/or based in Switzerland do business in these places. Our own unsustainable lifestyle is a role model for Chinese people (and others) that profit from the more recent economic growth.
Our own water sources are polluted with pesticides: in the most populated areas they are above limit on a regular basis.
Meanwhile we are still heating over 60% of our houses with fossil fuels.
I have more points that can directly be addressed in Switzerland, by Swiss politicians that have an impact on the climate.