Why You Should Come to the Largest Climate Rally Ever on the DC Mall April 25

Earth Day Network is organizing a huge event on the Mall in Washington DC on April 25. The goal is to demand tough, effective climate legislation and a swift transition away from 19th century energy sources.

“So what?” you may be asking yourself. There have been a lot of climate rallies over the last 25 years and Congress still hasn’t managed to pass a law. Why should I come to this one?

Let me count the ways….

That's the legendary Denis Hayes, national coordinator for the first Earth Day in 1970.

Hayes was director of the federal Solar Energy Research Institute (1979 to 1981) and is now president of the Bullitt Foundation and international chair of Earth Day 2010.

You can get all the information you want about the Sunday rally — as well as other actions you can take — by clicking on the Earth Day Network website.

In general, I haven’t been someone who pushes rallies.  But the Tea Partiers have gotten an absurd amount of media attention for relatively tiny rallies.  Back in September, they claimed they had a million attendees at a DC rally that in fact had perhaps 60,000 to 70,000.  Remember that overhyped Tea Party rally in DC last week where they ludicrously asked The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley to speak (see “Irony-gate 2: Modern day Tea Partiers outsource denial to Lord Monckton — a British peer!“)?  The speakers claimed they had 25,000 attendees, but even the Wall Street Journal reported, “we estimate that the number was less than half of that, at best.”

This Sunday, let’s leave those numbers in the dust.  Here’s Hayes on all the reasons that you should come:

Size

Past climate rallies have generally run from a few dozen people to a couple thousand. On Sunday, April 25, energy and climate activists from New England to the Carolinas will gather together to find new friends and allies at largest climate rally ever. We are coming together to move beyond education; to demand change; and to make it clear there will be political consequences of Congress doesn’t act.

Inspiration and Direction.

You will hear from:

Climate scientists like James Hansen, and Stephen Schneider.

EPA chief (and heroine!) Lisa Jackson & CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley

Cultural leaders like James Cameron (Avatar; Titanic) and Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale; The Blind Assassin)

Top business executives from Siemens, Phillips, UL, Future Friendly & SunEdison

Top labor leaders, including the President of the AFL-CIO and Secretary of the SEIU.

Progressive activists, including Jesse Jackson, Lydia Camarillo, & Hilary Shelton

Climate policy gurus like Joe Romm, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, & Rafael Fantauzzi

Spiritual leaders, including Rev. Theresa Thames, Rev. Richard Cizik, & Rabbi Warren Stone

Athletes like Dhani Jones, Aaron Peirsol, & Billy Demong

Environmentalists like Bobby Kennedy & Phillipe Cousteau

Entertainment

In between the speakers we will hear from some of the most committed artists in the nation, including Sting, John Legend, The Roots, Willie Colon, Passion Pit, Bob Weir, Jimmy Cliff, Joss Stone, Booker T, The Honor Society, Mavis Staples…

Intensity

In 1970, I told huge Earth Day crowds in Washington, DC, Chicago, and New York: “We won’t appeal anymore to the conscience of institutions because institutions have no conscience. If we want them to do what is right, we must make them do what is right. We will use proxy fights, lawsuits, demonstration, research, boycotts, and—above all—ballots…. If we let this become just a fad, it will be our last fad.”

Earth Day organizers created a Dirty Dozen campaign that made “the environment” a voting issue in the 1970 elections. One of the seven Congressmen we defeated that fall was George Fallon, chairman of the House Public Works Committee: the “pork” committee. THAT got their attention. If Chairman Fallon was vulnerable, everyone in politics was vulnerable.

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