The Forward on Climate rally was held at the

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...

in Washington, D.C. on February 17, 2013. The goal of the demonstration was to spur President Barack Obama and Congress to take more action to address global warming. Opposition to the proposed expansion of the

Keystone XL Pipeline The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albert ...

, that was still pending at the time, was a particular focus of the rally. The event featured a range of speakers, including indigenous leaders, youth activists, and political figures such as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Van Jones, who emphasized the need for action to address climate change and called for the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. Among the speakers were

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

Director

Michael Brune Michael Brune (born 24 August 1971) became the youngest executive director of the Sierra Club at 38, an American environmental organization founded by preservationist John Muir, UC professor of botany Willis Linn Jepson, and attorney Warren Olney ...

, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, actress and activist

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama ''Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include '' He Got Game'' (1998), ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in Bl ...

350.org 350.org is an international environmental organization addressing the climate crisis. Its stated goal is to end the use of fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy by building a global, grassroots movement. The 350 in the name stands fo ...

founder

Bill McKibben William Ernest McKibben (born December 8, 1960)"Bill Ernest McKibben." ''Environmental Encyclopedia''. Edited by Deirdre S. Blanchfield. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, December 31, 2017. is a ...

, and Obama's former Special Advisor for Green Jobs Van Jones. Participants marched from the

to the White House. Attendance was estimated at 35,000 (estimates ranged from 10,000 by a police officer to 50,000 by 350.org), and was thought to have been the largest climate rally in American history. The rally was arranged by the

, the

Hip Hop Caucus The Hip Hop Caucus (HHC) is a national, non-profit organization in the United States, which aims to promote political activism for young U.S. voters using hip-hop music and culture. The group's programs are intended to promote social and political ...

, and other organizations.

Reception

Patrick Michaels Patrick J. Michaels (February 15, 1950 – July 15, 2022) was an American agricultural climatologist. Michaels was a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute until 2019. Until 2007, he was research professor of environmental ...

of the Cato Institute said that if the Keystone XL pipeline were constructed, people would be employed to maintain it. He dismissed fears over the project, saying He praised

hydrofracturing Frost weathering is a collective term for several mechanical weathering processes induced by stresses created by the freezing of water into ice. The term serves as an umbrella term for a variety of processes such as frost shattering, frost wedgi ...

for making a greater supply of natural gas available, and urged less governmental involvement in the energy sector. In his State of the Union address the following week, President Obama said The utterance was mentioned in several news stories about the rally.

External links

Photos of February 17, 2013 Forward on Climate Rally and March

References

{{Reflist 2013 protests February 2013 events in the United States Protest marches in Washington, D.C. 2013 in Washington, D.C. Environmental protests in the United States

Reception

See also

External links

References