Washington: As Donald Trump marked 100th day in office on Saturday, thousands of people from all over the US marched in favour of protecting the environment while slamming the effects the President's policies on climate.
Photo: AP Thousands marched in US to protest Trump's climate policies
The people across the US marched in rain, snow and sweltering heat Saturday to demand action on climate change and took aim at Trump's agenda for rolling back environmental protections.
From the early hours on Saturday, protesters gathered near the US Congress in Washington, D.C., then set out on a march down the streets of the US capital in a protest that was to surround the White House.
The organisers of the Peoples Climate March said about 300 sister marches or rallies were being held around the country, including in Seattle, Boston and San Francisco.
"The Trump administration's policies are a catastrophe for our climate and communities, especially low-income and communities of colour, who are on the front lines of this crisis," the People's Climate Movement, a coalition of environmentalist groups, said in a statement.
A wet spring snow fell in Denver, where several hundred activists posed in the shape of a giant thermometer for a photograph and a dozen people rode stationary bikes to power the loudspeakers. In Chicago, a rain-soaked crowd of thousands headed from the city's federal plaza to Trump Tower.
"We are here because there is no Planet B," the Rev. Mariama White-Hammond of Bethel AME Church told a rally in Boston.
The demonstrations came one week after supporters of science gathered in 600 cities around the globe, alarmed by political and public rejection of established research on topics including climate change and the safety of vaccines.
Among the participants on Saturday were public figures like actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore.
Participants Saturday said they object to Trump's rollback of restrictions on mining, oil drilling and greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants, among other things. Trump has called climate change a hoax, disputing the overwhelming consensus of scientists that the world is warming and that man-made carbon emissions are primarily to blame.
Among those attending the Chicago rally were members of the union representing Environmental Protection Agency employees. Trump has proposed cutting the EPA's budget by almost one-third, eliminating more than 3,000 jobs.
John O'Grady, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, called the march "a chance to speak out in unity against this administration" and its "ridiculous gutting of the EPA budget and staffing."
More than 2,000 people gathered at the Maine State House in Augusta. Speakers included a lobsterman, a solar company owner and members of the Penobscot Nation tribe.
People pause during a demonstration and march on Market Street in Philadelphia
A demonstration stretched for several blocks in downtown Tampa, Florida, where marchers said they were concerned about the threat rising seas pose to the city.
People gathered on the Boston Common carried signs with slogans such as "Dump Trump." Handmade signs at Seattle's march included the general — "Love Life" — and the specific — "Don't Kill Otters."
Some of the marches drew big-name attendees, including former Vice President Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the nation's capital. In Montpelier, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called the marches part of a fight for the future of the planet.
"Honored to join Indigenous leaders and native peoples as they fight for climate justice," DiCaprio tweeted.
Home > News > < Around the World > > Thousands march in US to protest Trump's climate policies
29/04/2017 23:37 
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