Forward on Climate

The Forward on Climate rally was held at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on February 17, 2013.[1] 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, that was still pending at the time, was a particular focus of the rally.

Protester seeks a decision against the Keystone XL Pipeline at the Forward on Climate Rally and March, February 17, 2013, in Washington, DC.

Among the speakers were Sierra Club Director Michael Brune, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, actress and activist Rosario Dawson, 350.org founder Bill McKibben,[2] and Obama's former Special Advisor for Green Jobs Van Jones.[3] Participants marched from the National Mall to the White House. Attendance was estimated at 35,000 (estimates ranged from 10,000 by a police officer[2] to 50,000 by 350.org[4][5]), and was thought to have been the largest climate rally in American history.[6][7]

The rally was arranged by the Sierra Club, the Hip Hop Caucus, 350.org,[8] and other organizations.[9]

Reception

Patrick Michaels 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

It reminds me of the TransCanada pipeline that was supposed to cause all these problems and wreak all this havoc. It never did. All it did was supply oil.

He praised hydrofracturing for making a greater supply of natural gas available, and urged less governmental involvement in the energy sector.[8]


In his State of the Union address the following week, President Obama said[8][10][11]

We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science—and act before it's too late.

The utterance was mentioned in several news stories about the rally.

gollark: More like micromanagement by someone who believes that they have the right to control fansites too.
gollark: (this is now up on the forums).
gollark: ```Unfortunately, it is unavailable, possibly forever, because (according to an email):Thank you for your request to access the Dragon Cave API from host dc.osmarks.tk. At this time, your request could not be granted, for the following reason: You have, through your own admission on the forums, done the exact thing that got EATW banned from the API.This may be a non-permanent issue; feel free to re-submit your request after correcting any issue(s) listed above.Thanks, T.J. Land presumably due to this my server and computer (yes, I should use a VPS, whatever) can no longer access DC. Whether this is sickness checking, scraping, or using EATW's approximation for optimal view count I know not, but oh well. Due to going against the unwritten rules of DC (yes, this is why I was complaining about ridiculous T&C issues) this hatchery is now nonfunctional. Service may be restored if I actually get some notification about what exactly the problem is and undoing it will not make the whole thing pointless. The text at the bottom is quite funny, though.```
gollark: I could add a T&C stating that it is the hatchery's automatic systems' prerogative to take stuff which is sick out of rotation, but none would care.
gollark: They effectively give helping permission by submitting it to a hatchery, but that's irrelevant.

References
  1. "Thousands rally on Mall over climate". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  2. Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press (2013-02-17). "Thousands protest Keystone XL pipeline in Washington". Montrealgazette.com. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  3. "Tens of Thousands Rally to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline & Urge Obama to Move "Forward on Climate"". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  4. "'Forward on Climate' Rally Draws Nearly 50,000 | Environment News Service". 2013-02-17. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  5. Simons, Marlise (2013-02-18). "Holding Obama's Feet to the Climate-Change Fire - NYTimes.com". Rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  6. Zornick, George (2013-02-17). "'Forward on Climate' Rally Sends a Message to Obama: No Keystone". The Nation.
  7. Lennard, Natasha (2013-02-18). "The largest climate rally in U.S. history". Salon.com. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  8. "Environmentalists fill National Mall to fight climate change". CNN.com. 2013-02-18. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  9. Buford, Talia (2013-02-17). "Thousands Rally in Washington to protest Keystone Pipeline". Politico.
  10. "Obama Administration Moves Forward on Climate Change Without Congress - US News and World Report". Usnews.com. 2013-02-22. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  11. Gerken, James (2013-02-17). "'Forward On Climate' Rally Brings Climate Change Activists To National Mall In Washington, D.C. (VIDEO)". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
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