Stop Climate Change march: 3 December 2005

John Preece reports on an inspirational day in London.

The march coming up to Victoria embankment The Birmingham People & Planet group in full force. Stopping the traffic to stop climate change.

In the weeks building up to the International Day of Action on Climate Change (Saturday 3 December, chosen to coincide with the Montreal Climate Conference), every event we attended downplayed the likely attendance. Most veteran campaigners had seen years of environmental protests with only a few hundred people, and didn't want to raise any false hopes. Not sure what to expect, we spilled into Lincoln's Inn Fields to find the streets crammed with over 10,000 demonstrators and the skyline broken with countless banners and placards (many of them sneakily recycled from the G8). Brilliant!

To the funky beats of a samba band, the march wound its way through the streets of London, taking in essential tourist spots such as the Esso headquarters, the Australian Embassy and Downing Street. The sheer volume of people forced the police to keep a close eye on us and close half the roads. Along the Thames, the march was moving faster than the jammed traffic on the other side - meaning that every driver had to endure a constant barrage of comments about walking or taking the bus from the passing campaigners. That'll learn ‘em!

After fighting our way up Piccadilly against the flow of Christmas shoppers, we entered Grosvenor Square to the sounds of cheers for the Canadian Embassy and jeers for the heavily guarded United States'. A series of rousing speeches was given from the people at the forefront of the climate movement – including George Monbiot, Caroline Lucas and David Rovics.

As the buses and trains bore the inspired campaigners back home, there was only one question - where do we go from here?