Bend residents turn out for Climate Change March

Over 2,000 events worldwide were held on Sunday, including one in Bend, with one message for global leaders, to cut back on fossil fuel by thinking green.

People from all over the world are spreading a message to international leaders to do something about climate change.

From Paris, where many protesters scuffled with police, to here on the High Desert.

“Climate change is our biggest threat to everything that we believe in,” Bend event organizer Marie Fay said.

More than a dozen people marched and rallied on a cold, sunny Sunday near Drake Park as leaders were set to gather for the United Nations climate change conference in Paris.

The goal for this group of Bendites was to let local and state leaders know the world must turn off the world’s supply of fossil fuel and turn on the power of renewable energy.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s man-made or not. At this point, we can stop the temperature from going up, if we do what is right,” Fay said.

It’s a global effort that is starting to trend all over social media sites, from Twitter to Facebook.

For fay, it’s about teaching the next generation about reducing gas emissions.

“Look at the climate that has changed just here in Bend,” she said. “We no longer have the snowpack we used to have. We have higher temperature than we ever had before.”

As we reported earlier this year, Oregon has seen a severe drought in recent years, and conditions worsened throughout of the summer, as many reservoirs dropped to very low levels.

“The generation I come from has screwed up the climate, and I think the young people know now it’s here — they have to fix it,” Fay said.