Climate activists are concluding their five days of action in Washington with a march to the U.S. Capitol to demand that President Biden take more extreme measures to address climate change.
They are demanding Biden stop approving fossil fuel projects and declare a national climate emergency at a time when scientists say the world must sharply cut greenhouse gas emissions. Those protesting this week have said they believe he has not delivered on climate-related campaign promises.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
The rallies are part of People vs. Fossil Fuels demonstrations by a coalition of groups known as Build Back Fossil Free, a nod to Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. The protesters are being led by Indigenous people from across the country, who shared stories about how human-induced climate change has affected the health of their communities.
Indigenous activists come to D.C. with a message for Biden: Declare a national climate emergency
Joye Braun, 52, of Eagle Butte, S.D., a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and a national pipeline campaign organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, led a crowd in chanting “Boo!” toward the White House on Monday and criticized Biden on his climate actions so far.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
As a child, she remembers how the snow in the winter months piled up as high as their homes. She would jump from the rooftops with other kids and build elaborate snow tunnels. Now, she said, they get a light dusting of snow during the winter, which affects the water runoff needed in the spring for farming and growing traditional plants such as wild plums and buffalo berries. There’s less grass for her family’s cows to pasture. And there’s always a search for water as stock dams have run dry, she said.
“Biden’s administration is green-washing the climate solutions. They are believing false solutions like carbon offsets that everyone thinks are these wonderful things and they’re not,” Braun said. “In order for us to really have solutions, we need to move away from our fossil fuel addiction.”
On Thursday, dozens of Indigenous leaders and climate activists occupied the Interior Department by sitting inside and holding hands. Others were unable to get inside as police blocked the only unlocked doorway of the Stewart Lee Udall Main Interior Building entrance on C Street NW.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Federal Protective Service personnel responded to the protest “to mitigate the situation,” Interior Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said in a statement. Security personnel sustained “multiple injuries,” and one officer was taken to a hospital.
People vs. Fossil Fuels said in a statement that 55 people were arrested during the protest, including Indigenous leaders, and that police “acted aggressively” by using Tasers on at least two people and batons to hit others.
“Because of colonization, our mission has been passed on generation after generation — to protect the sacred. Just as those who walked before us, we continue their song and rise for our youth, for the land, and for the water,” said a statement from the Indigenous leaders who led the occupation. “You can arrest us, tear gas us, poison us but there will always be more hearts to continue the song until we are all free.”
Those in Washington this week shared a sense of urgency about humanity’s future. They referred to the recent landmark report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that described how humans have pushed the climate into “unprecedented” territory. The planet is on track to warm more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, which could trigger irreversible damage and more deadly disasters such as fires, heat waves and floods unless the world quickly and severely cuts greenhouse gas emissions. Right now, they said, may be the last moment to implement meaningful change.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
When asked about the protesters’ demands during a news briefing Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “Of course we’re listening to advocates and people who have been elevating the issue of climate for decades.”
Psaki credited activists with putting climate “on the front of the agenda.”
“I would encourage anyone out there or not to look at what the president is proposing, what he’s trying to push across the finish line at this point, which is an enormous investment and commitment to addressing the climate crisis. That’s in his legislative agenda that’s currently working its way through Congress now,” Psaki said. “It doesn’t mean his climate commitment ends once he signs this into law, it just means that’s what our focus is on now, and it will have a dramatic, important impact.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Biden has taken steps to reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels, including proposing federal goals and mandates to begin shifting the United States toward electric cars, among other measures. Biden also canceled a federal permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but protesters this week have criticized the completion of Line 3, a tar-sands oil pipeline expansion project from Canada across northern Minnesota and into Wisconsin.
Opponents claimed Line 3 violates treaty-protected tribal land and predict it will leak and damage the environment. They lost court challenges, and Biden did not act to cancel the federal permit that allowed it. Oil began flowing through it on Oct. 1.
Throughout the week, climate activists chanted “Stop Line 3!” and “Death to the black snake!”
Michael Barnes, a spokesman for Enbridge, the Canadian company behind the pipeline, said in an earlier statement that the pipeline had “tremendous support” throughout Minnesota and that Native Americans made up 7 percent of the project workforce. Renewable energy also is “a core business” for the company, with a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, Barnes wrote.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Supporters of pipeline projects say the nation’s 2.6 million-mile pipeline network is a relatively safe way to transport needed oil and gas with a lower carbon footprint than the alternatives of using trucks or railroads. Some labor unions also have supported pipeline projects, saying fossil fuel industry jobs provide higher pay than those in renewable energy.
“We share the urgency of confronting climate change together without delay; yet doing so by eliminating America’s energy options is the wrong approach and would leave American families and businesses beholden to unstable nations for higher cost and far less reliable energy,” Megan Bloomgren, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, said in an earlier statement.
Thousands of people from around the globe will gather soon in Glasgow, Scotland, the site of the annual United Nations climate summit, where government leaders will face increasing pressure to commit to more aggressive pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow the Earth’s warming. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres has described the planet’s current path as “catastrophic.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Indigenous activists have been leading protests in Washington, directing the crowds in marching, songs and civil disobedience, and ramping up the pressure on the administration ahead of the climate summit. Those protesting say Biden’s actions on climate do not meet the urgency and severity of the crisis.
Each morning since Monday, hundreds of climate protesters have marched from Freedom Plaza to Lafayette Square, with a group of about 100 to 200 people standing on the sidewalk in front of the White House, despite law enforcement warning them to disperse. On Monday, that led to about 156 protesters receiving citations for obstructing traffic and then being released, Sgt. Roselyn Norment, a U.S. Park Police spokesperson, said in a statement.
The rest of the week, protesters also ignored dispersal warnings from Park Police. Protesters said Park Police stopped issuing citations to all who disregarded dispersal warnings and instead allowed them the choice of simply walking away.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Park Police said 72 people were issued citations and released on Tuesday, with that number dropping to 17 people on Wednesday.
Though Monday’s protests were largely peaceful, there were moments of tension, including when police attempted to block off Pennsylvania Avenue and protesters yelled at officers and shook the metal gate. Secret Service officers converged on Erica Jones, 41, an enrolled member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe who lives in Ramsey, Minn., as protesters called for them to let her go.
Police handcuffed her, and she fell to the ground. She cried out that she didn’t want to die. Shortly after, police released her on the sidewalk, and another protester comforted her. Jones said in an interview that she had thrown an orange toward police and believes that prompted the police to handcuff her. The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment.
Cleve Wootson contributed to this report.