[The events, separated by two weeks of shock and grief, offer a
stark juxtaposition between the immediate danger of terrorism and the
longer-term existential threat of climate change. They also contrast what many
see as a dearth of security leading up to the terrorist attacks and the massive
precautions surrounding the climate conference.]
 |
(Miguel Medina /
|
PARIS — As France bowed its head in
official mourning Friday for 130 people killed by terrorists, it also braced
for the challenge of hosting nearly 150 world leaders who will begin arriving
this weekend for a critical global summit on the environment.
The events, separated by two
weeks of shock and grief, offer a stark juxtaposition between the immediate
danger of terrorism and the longer-term existential threat of climate change.
They also contrast what many see as a dearth of security leading up to the
terrorist attacks and the massive precautions surrounding the climate
conference.
The United Nations-sponsored
summit is sure to add to the strain on security forces that have already been
stretched by an investigation of the Nov. 13 Paris
French officials call the
climate conference “the biggest peace summit ever organized,” with 147 heads of
state and government expected to attend. They will be guarded by 2,800 French
police at the conference venue, with thousands more officers deployed
throughout the city.
Attendees are slated to include
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and President
Obama, who has emphasized that he sees attendance at the summit as even more
important following the attacks.
“I think it’s absolutely
vital for every country, every leader, to send a signal that the viciousness of
a handful of killers does not stop the world from doing vital business,” Obama
said this week.
But some elements of the
conference won’t go ahead as planned. Demonstrations have been canceled, with
police citing security risks.
Preparations for the summit
came as Paris
With wounded attack victims in
wheelchairs and relatives of the dead looking on from a cobblestone courtyard,
Hollande said France
He also vowed that the country would respond with more music and sporting
events following attacks on sites that included a concert hall and a stadium.
Security experts say that if
the Islamic State or another militant group were to try to attack Paris
“This generation of terrorists knows that
attacking leaders or protected sites is probably out of reach,” said Camille
Grand, director of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research. “That
doesn’t mean they won’t try. But it’s extremely difficult.”
Grand said organizers are
helped by the fact that the summit will be held just outside the city limits,
at a conference center in Le Bourget, near Paris
Since the Nov. 13 attacks, France
But organizers are not taking
chances. Border controls have been tightened, and a section of the Boulevard
Peripherique, the major highway that rings Paris
Under regulations passed since
the attacks, police have banned demonstrations, forcing nongovernmental
organizations to create other options for protest.
Avaaz, a global campaign
network whose name means “voice” in several languages, plans to cover the Place
de la Republique, a square in central Paris, with shoes symbolizing the
footsteps of those who had planned to take part in a demonstration that was
being called the Global Climate March. The police have approved the
installation of the shoes, which the group has been collecting for the past
week. The square is both the city’s unofficial place of mourning and the
traditional site for the expression of political discontent.
Other groups are planning to create a human chain between the Place de la
Republique and another of the city’s squares, two miles away, or to join what
some are calling a “great clamor for climate” by playing music and shouting
from their windows for 15 minutes at 8 p.m. each night of the conference.
Several groups including the
World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and France Nature Environment say they have developed an online tool
to allow people to march in the Americas Africa , Asia or elsewhere in Europe wearing the names and pictures
of those who had planned to demonstrate in Paris
And some say they will simply
disobey the police crackdown.
“We need to fight the state of
emergency,” said Benjamin Ball, a member of a group called the Disobediant.
“Otherwise [the authorities] will extend it indefinitely.”
At the Place de la Republique
on Friday, mourning citizens continued to pay tribute to the victims of the
attacks. But they also looked ahead to a summit that many hope will help the
world take a stand against an even greater long-term threat.
“We are all submerged in
grief,” said Hélène Gauterie, wiping tears from her eyes as she stood before
mountains of fading flowers and candles soaked by days of rain. “It’s hard to
imagine thinking of anything else.”
But Julie and Marc Motreux, visiting
from the southern French city of Nimes
Thomas Garreau and Justine
Baudier, both students from Versailles Paris
“The terrorism happened and
could happen again,” said Garreau, who belongs to an organization affiliated
with climate politics. The climate conference, he said, could provide
“constructive change.”
“Something positive must come
of it,” Baudier said.
