Alarmed by Trump’s agenda, thousands join climate march
Protests across nation to support environment
WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of demonstrators, alarmed at what they see as a dangerous assault on the environment by the Trump administration, poured into the streets of Washington on Saturday to sound warnings both planetary and political about the Earth’s warming climate.
Starting at the foot of the Capitol, the protesters marched to the White House, surrounding the mansion while President Donald Trump was inside on his 100th day in office. Once there, the demonstrators let out a collective roar, meant to symbolically drown out the voices of the administration’s climate change deniers.
The protesters, who had gathered for the latest in what has become nearweekly demonstrations of varying stripes against the president, then offered a chant: “Resistance is here to stay, welcome to your 100th day.”
Billed as the Peoples Climate March, the demonstration in Washington, and hundreds of smaller events like it across the country, had long been planned to mark the 100th day of the new president’s term. What organizers did not know, at least initially, was that that president would be Mr. Trump.
His administration has gone on to begin rolling back his predecessor’s most ambitious environmental measures, renewing fears that government inaction will send the world headlong into an era of rising seas and violent weather.
“I want to make a statement. I’m showing my daughters we can believe in something and express what we believe in,” said Scott Trexler, who came with one of his daughters and a church group from Rocky Ridge, Maryland, to march for the first time. He said his faith demanded it. “I believe the environment is important for my daughters and future generations,” he said.
The demonstration was also being used to gauge what Democrats hope is a blossoming opposition movement to Mr. Trump that they can parlay into lasting political power.
“There has been devastating news on climate coming out of the White House and Congress, and a lot of people are really angry,” said May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, an environmental advocacy group that helped plan the march. “We can’t deny that is a big part of it. But we want to make a distinction between anger and resolve.”
On the eve of the march, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it was beginning an overhaul of its website, which included taking down a longstanding site devoted to the science of climate change, which the agency said was “under review.”
Many of the signs at Saturday’s climate march were dark and ominous, warning of climate catastrophe, dying oceans, crop destruction and planet degradation. But the mood of the marchers was anything but somber.
The climate event differs from last week’s March for Science in its focus and also its participants — only 1 out of 8 contingents of Saturday’s protest featured scientific researchers. The rest included labor activists, indigenous people already facing severe effects from climate change, and children and young people who will live with the effects of climate change longest as the Earth continues to warm.
But there’s plenty of overlap between the marches. Ken Hunter, 78, traveled from Charlestown, W.Va. for Saturday morning’s march. He also came to Washington for the March for Science last weekend and the Tax March on April 15 — and attended a Women’s March in Florida.
The motivation for the current climate march is clear: The young Trump administration already has moved to roll back former president Barack Obama’s signature climate initiative, the Clean Power Plan, and Trump and his team have taken many other actions to weaken environmental protections of air and water, and to enable fossil fuel exploitation on public lands and waters.
The administration is grappling with a major climate policy decision: whether to remain in the Paris climate agreement. Several of Trump’s Cabinet picks are advising against following through on his campaign pledge to “cancel” the accord.
The demonstration’s organizers made a point of casting a big net, seeking to make the case that climate change is interwoven with traditional social justice issues like racial, gender and economic inequality.
The marchers in Washington included Hollywood celebrities and stars of the political left like former Vice President Al Gore and business magnate Richard Branson. The front of their ranks, though, was reserved for ordinary people: the immigrants, indigenous people, laborers, coastal dwellers and children, who organizers say are most vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate.
At a rally in Chicago, Sue Meyers, a retired teacher from Frankfurt, Illinois, said it was important to tell skeptics on climate change that “nowhere else in the world do people think like this.”
In Los Angeles, protesters gathered near the port, where the oil refiner Tesoro wants to expand its operation. “A lot more people are becoming engaged because they realize they have to,” said Kaya Foster, an environmental educator and activist from Santa Monica.
Around the country, the demonstrators’ list of grievances was long. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has appointed one of the chief antagonists of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, as its administrator and proposed slashing its budget by nearly onethird, more than any other federal agency. He has signed several executive orders aimed at rolling back President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, a set of regulations intended to close heavily polluting coal-fired power plants, and restrictions on vehicle emissions, among others.
This past week, Mr. Trump signed orders intended to initiate reviews aimed at opening certain protected lands and waters to drilling, mining and logging. His advisers were still debating whether the United States would remain in the landmark Paris climate accord. And on Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had taken down several agency webpages that contained climate data and other scientific information relating to climate change.