As the action wound down above the Equator, the worldwide Women’s Marchers count hit approximately 2.5 million, a figure that, presumably, includes the 30 or so human marchers—and untold penguin marchers—who exercised their rights to free speech and assembly from Antarctica. Look at ‘em. It’s great.
The march appears to have been headed by a woman named Linda Zunas, but it’s hard to know exactly what their organizational structure is, because when I wrote to her hoping to get her take on the events, and maybe a few sweeping panoramas of the majestic beauty of the Antarctic landscape, I received only an autoreply:
Sadly we are limited to satellite phone and slow internet
I have posted a photo on my twitter of our pre-march gathering @lindazunas
We are from more than 6 countries, ages from 24-87, men and women. Our primary mission/message is to save the planet, Antarctica, penguins, etc.
we are environmentally minded tourists who wanted to march and be part of the global movement.
We will march on the actual continent this morning.
Listen, girl, I get it. The whole thing was not the FaceTime from atop a glacier with a penguin in her lap that I was hoping for, but I’m sure it’s deeply hard to give a statement to the press from a satellite phone with slow internet. (I practically threw up when I couldn’t send a text to my coworker from the National Mall earlier today.) So we’ll have to just take her tweets at their word that things are going very well in Antarctica.