Santa Barbarans Collect Winter Clothes Donations, Prepare to Travel to Washington D.C. for Massive Rally for President Obama to Move U.S. Forward with Climate Solutions
“Forward on Climate” Rally expected to draw 20,000 Americans, be largest climate rally ever
They are collecting warm winter clothes for Santa Barbara residents who want to attend the rally, but who are not prepared for the cold weather in Washington.
More than 25,000 Americans from across the country are expected to participate in the “Forward on Climate” Rally outside the White House, making it the largest climate rally in American history. Rally organizers including the Sierra Club and 350.org are calling on President Obama to move American forward with decisive action to reduce carbon pollution from fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. The first milestone for President Obama is to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, to stop extreme oil from toxic Canadian tar sands from further jeopardizing our climate.
“The climate crisis is real and urgent here in California and everywhere , as life is interconnected. I’m traveling to DC representing other people of faith, asking President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and move us beyond oil to clean energy,” said Cheryl Snell.
Snell is an activist in her local Unitarian Church, and is helping to educate her neighbors about the dangers of tar sands, natural gas fracking and other dirty fossil fuels, and the importance of clean energy solutions. Snell is part of a delegation of Santa Barbarans traveling to the rally from the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, UCSB, and Santa Barbara City College and tens of thousands of Central Californians concerned about climate disruption and Big Oil drilling, its local effects. In 1969, a leak in a Union Oil Company well in the federal waters of the Santa Barbara Channel spilled between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil into the water. An oil slick came ashore along 35 miles of coastline in Santa Barbara County. One year later, in 1970, the Santa Barbara oil spill inspired the first ever Earth Day celebration.
What: Forward on Climate Rally, to move President Obama to take immediate action on the climate crisis, the first being reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Local solidarity actions include documentary film screenings about tar sands and fracking by Food and Water Watch and Center for Biological Diversity, calling for a statewide California ban on fracking and regulation of the oil and gas industries!
Who: members of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, UCSB and Santa Barbara City College students, and a toddler.
When: Sunday, February 17, 2013, from 12-4PM
Where: March from Washington Monument on the National Mall to the White House, Rally and Action