DC Climate Rally 2/17/13
A year ago today, I went to Washington DC on a bus with 200 other people from Westchester County for a Climate Rally and march in front of the White House. There were over 40,000 of us in all, many carrying signs and banners asking President Obama to do the right thing on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The right thing is to say NO to the pipeline and yes to a low carbon future.
The rally was civil, polite, perfectly legal and actually had the look of an Obama rally. Many of the signs included that red, white and blue O we’ve all come to know.
It was COLD, by last year’s standards! Twenty degrees with a bit of wind in the air. Not one snowflake anywhere. Marching helped keep everyone from freezing too much. Many were hopeful that such a large rally would send a strong message to President Obama that we had to get serious about climate.
But the President wasn’t in DC that weekend, he was in warm and sunny Florida golfing with Tiger Woods and a number of big wig oil and gas executives who donated to his campaign. Read more details here:
I made a short “music video” to photo document my experience at the Climate Rally. Here is the link in case you don’t see it below: https://vimeo.com/59950863
Tar sands must stay in the ground
The work to keep tars sands bitumen in the ground and to stop the Keystone XL pipeline continues to this day. Late in the day on the Friday before Super Bowl Sunday, the State Department released its Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Keystone XL pipeline. That means that President Obama will have to put his signature on the project after a 90 day period.
If you are like me, you care about your children’s future. Help stop this pipeline from happening.
Here are 3 things you can do.
#1 Make a public comment on the State Department website. We only have until March 7th to make comments. Here is the link
http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=DOS-2014-0003-0001
#2 CALL the White House. Tell them that the Keystone Pipeline is a big big mistake and disaster in the making. (202) 456-1111 Call every day. Put it in your speed dial.
#3 Sign and join the Tar Sands Pledge of Resistance. Over 80,000 people have already joined. www.nokxl.org
