We can't stop climate change without a movement, and today was a giant step forward in building that movement. As many as 50,000 people in Washington, DC, and 5,000 in a support rally in San Francisco plus tens of thousands more around the country demanded that President Obama and his State Department reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
In the Fall of 2011, President Obama made the right decision by saying that the pipeline needed more study and he could not approve it (See posts from November, 2011, such as this one).
I was pleased to see the Golden Gate Electric Vehicle Association at the San Francisco march and rally, as well as a table from Tesla. Our 350 Bay Area group, one of the main sponsors of the event, collected signatures supporting our proposal to require labels on gas pumps warning that burning gasoline is disrupting our climate and causing extreme weather. See below for latest design proposal. One of the signature gatherers said many of the people he talked to at the rally already drove electric cars or didn't own a car, but they still supported the labels.
One of the San Francisco speakers, member of the Board of Supervisors, John Avalos, not only supported the demand to say no to the pipeline, but he also called for San Francisco to divest from oil, coal, and gas company stocks. The San Francisco rally was lead by Native American drummers, vowing opposition to the tar sands mining and the pipeline.
I was especially impressed by a comment from Washington DC where Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. declared, "This is as important as when Dr. King marched in 1963,” he said, except more so. “It’s not just about equality. It’s about existence.”
Rev Yearwood addressing the Washington rally
Photos from the San Francisco march and rally:
For more photos of the San Francisco event, please click here.
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