 Thousands march for climate in Paris despite 'yellow vest' unrest Paris (AFP) Dec 8, 2018 - Up to 25,000 people marched through Paris on Saturday urging greater action on climate change, despite fears that their protest would be scuppered by "yellow vest" demonstrations. Police estimated the number of green activists heading onto the streets at 17,000 while organisers counted 25,000 urging world governments to better protect the environment. The numbers were similar to previous climate marches in Paris, despite sporadic violence in the city on Saturday among thousands of "yellow vest" demonstrators who want more help for France's poor. Organisers had to change the route of the climate march, marching instead from Place de la Nation to Place de la Republique, due to the yellow vest demonstrations, but refused a request by Interior Minister Christophe Castaner to postpone it. "It was unthinkable to cancel this march. It's important to talk about problems related to the end of the world as well as the end of the month," Elodie Nace, a spokeswoman for green NGO Alternatiba, told the crowds. Thousands also marched in other French cities, including an estimated 10,000 in Marseille, 3,500 in Montpellier and 3,000 in Lille. The "yellow vest" movement has been spurred by anger in small-town and rural France at rising car fuel taxes which were aimed at helping the country transition to a greener economy, but which protesters say hurts the poor. But green activists at the climate marches urged people to find solutions for both environmental problems and the financial struggles of France's poorest. "Yellow vests, green vests -- same anger," they chanted. Some "yellow vest" activists, clad in their emblematic high-visibility road jackets, joined the Paris march after breaking off from their own demonstration. Marches had been organised in more than 120 towns across France to mark the COP24 climate talks in Poland.
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US President Donald Trump on Saturday once again attacked the Paris agreement on fighting climate change, citing ongoing protests in the French capital as proof that he was right to reject the pact.
His tweets came in the middle of UN climate talks in Poland, where nearly 200 nations have gathered to agree on a universal rulebook to make good on promises they signed up to in the 2015 Paris climate deal to cap global warming at well under two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).
"Very sad day & night in Paris," he said on Twitter, after demonstrators clashed with riot police in the French capital.
"Maybe it's time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!"
Trump's comments were not the first time he had used the "yellow vest" protests -- which began on November 17 with road blockades against fuel prices but have since ballooned into a mass movement against French President Emmanuel Macron -- to criticize the climate deal.
On Tuesday, he called the Paris agreement "fatally flawed" and said Macron's decision to suspend the fuel tax hikes vindicated his decision to dump the climate deal.
Trump has long said he distrusts the consensus by nearly all the world's respected climate scientists on the link between human activity and rising temperatures, as well as other damaging climate change phenomena.
Since becoming president in January 2017, he has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement and torn up a raft of environmental protection laws, saying the US economy needs the boost.
Last month, Trump said he didn't believe the central warning in his own government's National Climate Assessment, which said there will be hundreds of billions of dollars in losses by the end of the century due to climate change "without substantial and sustained global mitigation."
The UN's independent panel of climate experts in October issued its starkest findings yet: emissions from fossil fuels must be slashed by half within 12 years in order to hit the Paris goals of limited temperature rises.
Air pollution alone is now estimated to kill as many as nine million people every year.
"The Paris Agreement isn't working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France," Trump said earlier Saturday.
"People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment."
Aussie school kids lead mass coal mine protests
Sydney (AFP) Dec 8, 2018 -
Australian school children led thousands of demonstrators nationwide Saturday calling for a halt on plans for Indian mining firm Adani to construct a controversial coal mine in the country's northeast.
The rallies across major cities followed a protest last month that saw thousands of Australian students defy Prime Minister Scott Morrison and skip school to demand the government take action on climate change.
School children invited adults along to Saturday's event, helping to boost numbers.
"We are taking a stand that our leaders are far too afraid to take themselves," 14-year-old student Jean Hinchcliffe told demonstrators.
"We are the people that have been fighting and will keep fighting for a brighter future -- not just for ourselves, but for our children and our children's children's children, and all future generations," she added to a rapturous applause.
Indian mining firm Adani vowed last month to press ahead with the construction of a controversial coal mine in Queensland state, although the project will be dramatically scaled back from earlier plans.
Work on the Carmichael mine could get underway within weeks.
Protestors called on both the government and the opposition to put a halt to the project.
"The leaders of Australia need to start acting," 12-year-old Sammy Lightfoot told AFP.
The prime minister last month said "kids should go to school" when asked about children missing a day in the classroom to protest.
Students on Saturday creatively rebuked the prime minister, who goes by the nickname ScoMo, taking selfies with a giant ScoMo puppet, carrying a school grade card for climate science labelled "FAIL" in red writing.
"Schoolkids are the next generation of Australia," Lightfoot added.
"They are potentially the future leaders, so I think they should have the biggest voice and the biggest say in what their country does."
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