Rallies took place in Greek cities on Saturday, especially Athens and Thessaloniki, as people turned out in response to Global Day of Action on Climate Change.

   The gathering at Syntagma Square in the heart of Athens began at noon and was joined by 54 movements for the city and the environment, 27 local authority bodies, 13 trade unions, 10 environmental and social groups, as well as members of the public.

   At the same time, events are being held throughout the world in the first 10 days of December, coinciding with the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali on December 3-14.

   The central slogan at the Athens rally was "The climate has changed. Have we?", with environmental groups stressing that the measures taken to arrest the march of climate change are minimal and inadequate, while global consumption rates are 30 percent above the world's capacity to replenish its resources.

   For Greece, in particular, they warn that the current economic model driving growth is untenable, while the rise in global temperatures will bring the Greek climate closer to that of north Africa, especially after the destructive fires that made it even more vulnerable to global warming.

   They forecast that life in Greece will become unbearable in coming decades and that the current productive model based on construction, large highways and tourism, combined with a thoughtless waste of natural resources, will lead to disaster.

   Groups participating in the rally stressed that Greece should conform to Kyoto Protocol targets and actively promote a global agreement imposing drastic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, drastically cut back on the use of fossil fuels for power production and construct no more coal-fired power stations, as well as taking measures to clean up polluting industry, promoting use of renewable energy sources, take measures for energy conservation and withdraw the recent General Spatial Plan and that for tourism.

   Demonstrators in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki formed a human chain around the site of the Thessaloniki International Fair and the 3rd Army Corps, creating a symbolic blockade around the area, in order to highlight their demand that it be converted to a green space available for use by people in the city.

   Caption: Scene from a rally that took place in Syntagma Square in Athens on Saturday, to demonstrate against climate change. ANA-MPA - Katerina Mavrona.