NEW YORK CITY — It was a call to arms for the Climate March, as 310,000 people coursed through Manhattan Sept. 21, and another 200,000 joined them in cities around the world. And 57-plus of them represented Midcoast Maine, as a busload from Camden carrying local high school students and adults joined the crowd.

The goal was to demand commitments from world leaders to tackle climate issues, as an emergency United Nations Climate Summit was poised to begin at the U.N. building.

The march route stretched across Manhattan from 93rd Street and Central Park West to 34th Street and 11th Avenue. As the day continued, reports came in of tens of thousands more protesters marching outside the official route, streaming down avenues in midtown Manhattan, according to 350.org. At 5 p.m., march organizers had to send out a text asking marchers to disperse from the march route because the crowds had swelled beyond the route’s capacity.

Relying on a crowd density analysis formula developed by a professor of game theory and complex systems at Carnegie Mellon University, the official attendee count calculated the average density of the march crowd over specific intervals, factoring in the surface area covered by the crowd and the speed and duration of the march. 

Participants in the march included:

• UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon
• NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio
• Former Vice President Al Gore
• Leonardo di Caprio
• Mark Ruffalo
• Edward Norton
• Sting
• U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
• U.S. Senator Bernard Sanders
• U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer
• New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
• U.S. Representative for Minnesota, Keith Ellison
• U.S. Representative for New York, Nydia Velázquez
• U.S. Representative for New York, Jerrold Nadler
• New York State Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman
• Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres

The global day of climate action comes just two days before a UN Climate Summit, which is hosted by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, and attended by more than 125 world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, and UK Prime Minister David Cameron. The summit is intended to kickstart a process that will end with significant agreement at next December’s global negotiations in Paris.

The organizing for The People’s Climate March required the coming together of 1,574 groups in an effort akin to electoral campaigns. Just in the last week, 1,000,000 flyers were handed out across New York City. A total of 550 buses from nearly all 50 states flooded into Manhattan as well as two dedicated trains, one from DC and one from California. For the last month, 1 out of every 10 subway cars in the city also ran ads for the march.

In Australia, 30,000 people took to the streets of Melbourne, while locals went on a 50 km beach march on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, and a 700 km march from Melbourne to Canberra. Over ten thousand more participated in events in over 100 other cities and regional towns.

More than 2,500 people from across India hit the streets of New Delhi on Saturday, making the march the nation's strongest ever call for climate action.

In Tanzania, the Maasai marched across their traditional lands to call for action to protect their homelands in the Serengeti from the impacts of climate change. Simultaneous events also happened across Africa including Johannesburg,Togo, Niger, The Ivory Coast, and Benin as well as a march planned in Africa's largest city Lagos, taking place on Monday.

In London, the bells of The Church of Londonrang out across the city as 40,000 people combined forces to create an historic march to the steps of Parliament.

In Paris, 25,000 people took part in the "Paris Marche pour le Climat," with parades, marches, and bicycle rides across the bridges of the Seine.

On the US / Canada border, thousands of marchers from First Nations groups and local organisations will make the trip from Vancouver and Seattle to join hands in a truly international event, showing that "climate change knows no borders".

In the Pacific Islands, from Tonga to Tuvalu to Tokelau, people rallied calling for Action, Not Words, to protect the Pacific Islands. In rural Papua New Guinea students from a primary school marched to a nearby lighthouse, which has recently become semi-submerged due to rising sea levels. Even as they marched, people all across the Pacific are also preparing to send 30 Pacific Climate Warriors with their canoes to block the world's largest coal port in Australia in October.

In Istanbul, close to 3000 people marched through Istanbul's Taksim Square, with impacted communities from across Turkey at the forefront.

In Berlin, over 10,000 people participated in three parallel marches which converged for a colourful festival at the Brandenburg Gate.

In Rio, thousands were marching on the beaches of Ipanema, after images were broadcast on the statue of Christ the Redeemer for the last week building up to the march.

In Jakarta, thousands of people marched to send an urgent demand to the newly elected President for a commitment to build an economy that is powered by renewable energy. Other events in Asia include Seoul, Taiwan, Manila among others.

Code of Conduct Agreed to by the People’s Climate March Host Committee on July 17, 2014.