Climate protesters from Sydney to New York blocked roads Monday, sparking hundreds of arrests, as two weeks of civil disobedience demanding immediate action to save the Earth from "extinction" kicked off.

The demonstrations, triggered by the group Extinction Rebellion, were mostly limited to a few hundred people in each city, far from the size of last month's massive Greta Thunberg-inspired protests.

Protesters chained themselves to vehicles and other structures and lay down in the middle of streets in defiance of police across Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and North America.

Extinction Rebellion is demanding that governments drastically cut the carbon emissions that scientists have shown cause devastating climate change.

They are backed by Thunberg, the Swedish teenager whose searing UN address in September made international headlines, and by academics studying the rising temperatures and sea levels.

Their protests have irritated drivers and some officials but raised the hopes of those who see climate change as a threat to the planet.

In London, where the Extinction Rebellion movement was born last year, 276 people were arrested as demonstrators put up structures near Britain's parliament.

"Getting arrested sends a message to the government that otherwise law-abiding citizens are desperate," IT consultant Oshik Romem, from Israel but working in Britain for 19 years, told AFP.

- 'Running out of time' -

At New York's Battery Park, some 200 demonstrators took part in a "funeral march" to Wall Street, where protesters threw fake blood over the financial district's famous bronze statue of a bull.

"We need imagery like this in order to get people's attention," 29-year-old James Comiskey told AFP, as he carried a cardboard coffin in the procession.

Police arrested more a dozen people who staged a "die-in" -- in which people lay down as if they were dead -- by the bull.

Protests occurred in 60 cities around the world, including New Delhi, Cape Town, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, and Buenos Aires.

Hundreds of Australians joined a sit-in on a busy inner Sydney road before being dragged away by the police. Thirty people were later charged.

"We have tried petitions, lobbying and marches, and now time is running out," Australian activist Jane Morton said.

Australia's conservative government has resisted adopting new environmental standards and backed lucrative coal exports.

Campaigners in Dublin parked a pink yacht outside the office of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

Dutch police said they arrested 90 people after Extinction Rebellion members occupied a bridge outside the famed Rijksmuseum art gallery.

- 'Burn capitalism!' -

And dozens blocked bridges in the Canadian cities of Toronto, Edmonton and Halifax.

The movement is partially credited with pushing the UK government in June to become the first in the Europe Union to commit itself to a net-zero target for harmful emissions by 2050.

Extinction Rebellion is demanding governments reach that target by 2025, as well as holding "citizens assemblies" to decide on policies to achieve that aim.

The parliament in Norway, not an EU member, in June adopted a target of 2030.

There has been less movement in other parts of Europe or the most impacted cities of Asia.

And not everyone out on the streets was impressed with the campaign.

"They're taking it out on everyday people trying to go about their business. They should go after big people," London taxi driver Dave Chandler told AFP.

Extinction Rebellion counters that emergencies like the one heating up the climate demands action from everyone across the world.

Hundreds barricaded themselves inside a Paris shopping center for hours over the weekend.

Groups unfurled banners with slogans such as "Burn capitalism, not petrol" above Paris restaurants and fashion boutiques.

And hundreds brought blankets and sleeping bags to one of the main roundabouts in central Berlin, which police expect to be shut down for many days.

Extinction Rebellion's tactics in Australia prompted senior conservative politicians to call for protesters' welfare payments to be cut.

Sydney assistant police commissioner Mick Willing accused protesters of putting themselves and others at risk, warning that such disruptive protests in the future would "not be tolerated."

Commonwealth targets climate change with regeneration projects
London (AFP) Oct 4, 2019 - The Commonwealth on Friday launched an ideas-sharing network to tackle the effects of climate change through replicable regeneration projects.

The 53-country bloc held a two-day brainstorming of indigenous groups, environmentalists, scientists and climate change experts at its headquarters in London.

The Common Earth initiative will be a network of projects that can be copied and adapted to suit communities around the world.

While the Commonwealth contains G20 industrial powers like Britain, Canada and Australia and emerging forces like India and Nigeria, many of its members are developing island microstates which feel exceptionally vulnerable to climate change.

Ideas that can hold sway in the diverse Commonwealth tend to be taken up more widely, such as its climate change accords which were instrumental in the Paris COP21 UN climate conference deal in 2015.

"This about looking at practical, existing strategies to clean streams, restore forests and damaged ecosystems, protect marine health, educate our populations and challenge the economic and development approaches that led to the decline of our planet," said Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland.

- Planning for hurricanes -

Nichie Abo, a farmer from the indigenous Kalinago territory in Dominica who grows mangos and avocados, said 95 percent of the homes in his community were destroyed by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

The electricity network -- all above ground on poles -- was vulnerable to hurricanes and the area was left without power for more than a year.

The community wants to make its electricity network independent of the national grid, with each home having its own power source such as solar panels or a wind turbine.

They also want to construct a central building that can withstand hurricanes for use during emergencies and act as a community centre at other times.

"We're looking for funding," Abo told AFP.

"It is going to happen again, so we need to be prepared.

"This idea could be replicated across the Caribbean," he added, citing the Bahamas, hit last month by the devastating Hurricane Dorian.

The gathering also heard from contributors on developing more sustainable economic models.

"We're in a time of crisis. Emergencies, historically, are a time of great innovation and often bring out the best in us," said Stuart Cowan, regenerative development director at Capital Institute, a US-based finance think-tank.

"We need to start from scratch. We need to design economies that allow people to flourish within the limits of a finite planet," he told AFP.

With a eye on funding, Secretary-General Scotland is to take forward the meeting's initiatives to upcoming summits of Commonwealth trade and finance ministers.

Greta Thunberg mocks Putin's 'kind girl' jibes on Twitter
Moscow (AFP) Oct 4, 2019 - Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has responded with wry humour on Twitter to patronising comments made about her by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The 16-year-old changed her Twitter biography to say "A kind but poorly informed teenager" after Putin described her in these terms at a Moscow forum this week.

On Wednesday, Putin said: "I don't share the general enthusiasm" for Greta Thunberg's impassioned speech at the United Nations climate summit in September, which went viral with her repeated question: "How dare you?"

"I'm sure Greta is a kind girl and very sincere," Putin said of the campaigner who sailed across the Atlantic instead of flying to speak at the UN.

However, "no one explained" to Thunberg, who has 2.7 million followers on Twitter, that "the modern world is developing quickly," he lamented.

Putin said it was praiseworthy for young people to raise environmental issues, but raised the possibility that someone was manipulating Thunberg "in their own interests".

He warned "adults must do all they can not to lead teenagers and children into any extreme situations."

US President Donald Trump also attempted to crush Thunberg, only for her to use his own words against him.

After her speech at the UN, Trump mocked her tone on Twitter, saying she "seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."

Thunberg later changed her Twitter biography to read: "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."

Thunberg has been tipped as a possible winner of this year Nobel Peace Prize.

September 2019 equal hottest on record: monitor
Paris (AFP) Oct 4, 2019 - Last month was the equal hottest September in history, the European Union's satellite monitoring service said Friday, the fourth month in a row with near- or record-breaking temperatures.

The Copernicus Climate Service said September 2019 was 0.57 Celsius hotter than the historical average -- on a par with September 2016.

Last month was in fact very slightly warmer (0.02 C) than September but the service said they were treating both as joint record-holders.

The data continues Earth's hot streak, with June being the warmest June ever, July the warmest month in recorded history. August was the second hottest August since records began.

Copernicus said its data was further evidence of our planet's "long-term warming trend".

The service, which uses satellite imaging to observe ground-based climate trends, said it had registered significantly hotter than average months for the central and eastern United States, the Mongolian plateau and parts of the Arctic.

Temperatures in Europe were lower than the September average, as they were in southwestern parts of Russia and parts of Antarctica.

Yet the overall trend is hotter, according to Copernicus Director Jean-Noel Thepaut.

"The recent series of record-breaking temperatures is an alarming reminder of the long-term warming trend that can be observed on a global level," Thepaut said.

"With continued greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting impact on global temperatures, records will continue to be broken in the future."

Earth has warmed a little over 1 C since pre-industrial times and manmade emissions -- as well as atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases -- are rising annually.

Several peer-reviewed studies released this year showed that Earth had never in human history warmed so rapidly and uniformly as currently.

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