Yesterday, we brought the Keystone XL fight back to Washington.
After the Do the Math event wrapped up in Warner Theater, three thousand people gathered in Freedom Plaza, hoisted a giant inflatable pipeline over their heads, and marched around the White House. They chanted “Hey Obama, we don’t want no climate drama,” and “Michelle Obama, tell your man, stop that dirty pipeline plan!” (that one got a lot of love).
If President Obama is serious about tackling climate change in his second term, we’re calling on him to reject Keystone XL once and for all.
Yesterday’s march and rally felt amazing. It was good to get back in the streets, and to once again make it clear: this pipeline is NOT a done deal, and Americans don’t want it. We want clean, renewable energy, a stable climate, and a real future.
Yesterday’s crowd was awesome: we were joined by people of all ages from across the country. A busload of college students came all the way from Michigan on short notice. This guy rode all the way from New York in 36 hours. Speakers included Bill McKibben, Sierra Club President Allison Chin, Indigenous Environmental Network organizer Marty Cobenais, Gulf Coast activist Cherri Foytlin, and others. Everybody was fired up for this fight, including thousands of people who couldn’t be there in person but joined us via livestream.
And people are taking notice. On Friday, Big Oil’s senators sent a letter to Obama urging approval of the pipeline and citing “concerns” about demonstrators.
But we know yesterday’s action won’t be enough to win this fight. So we used this action to announce another one: next President’s Day, February 17, 2013, we’ll be back.
This time, let’s make it 20,000. Will you join us next Februrary and help give Big Oil something to really be concerned about?