Environmental activists gathered in front of the White House on Saturday to call on President Biden and Congress to pass a climate bill that has been stuck in the Senate.
The White House demonstration was one of dozens of Fight for Our Future rallies held across the country to press the government to cut the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.
Willett Simpkins, a retired nursing home maintenance director, said that they were here because of the hurricanes in North Carolina. It is time for them to stop talking about it.
The Hip Hop Caucus is a nonpartisan group that tries to engage young voters.
Many in the crowd work for environmental organizations, but there were voters who wanted Mr. Biden to know that failure to pass climate legislation could cost him his vote.
Mr. Biden, who came into office promising urgent action on climate change, has had his plans watered down and stuck in the Senate because of opposition from Republicans and Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia.
Mr. Biden has taken steps that are not in line with climate activists because of the high gas prices. He pleaded with oil and gas companies to increase drilling after releasing a record amount of oil. In keeping with an order from a federal judge, Mr. Biden said he would open more public lands to drilling.
There were a lot of promises that he made. It feels like we are going back to the 19th century.
At a time when scientists say the window is rapidly narrowing for nations to avoid tipping the planet into an irreversible future of more deadly storms, fires, floods, and food shortages, the events come.
Mr. Biden wants to cut greenhouse gases in half by the year 2050, which is in line with what scientists say is needed to avert such catastrophes.
If Democrats don't pass major climate legislation within the next few months, the window to meet that goal will slam shut. Republicans are expected to win control of at least one chamber of Congress in this fall's elections, and their opposition to climate action would likely doom the prospects for new legislation anytime soon.
Scientists say that nations need to act now to avoid a harrowing future. A major scientific report released earlier this month concluded that countries must immediately and drastically pivot away from the fossil fuels that have underpinned major economies for more than a century.
The Earth has warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Age due to the burning of oil, gas and coal. The impacts of climate change are already being felt in every corner of the globe. Scientists say that once the Earth passes a threshold of 1.5 degrees of warming, the likelihood of devastating heat waves, drought, wildfires and storms increases significantly.
The chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality reminded the crowd that the Biden administration has taken steps to cut pollution. She emphasized the need to pass his legislation, which would provide more than $500 billion in tax credits to speed the country's transition to wind and solar power as well as to electric cars.
She said that President Biden will use every tool to tackle climate change.
Mr. Simpkins has followed the actions of Mr. Biden, including a ban on hydrofluorocarbons, a greenhouse gas produced by refrigerator coolants.
He said that the stuff on the gas emissions was good. They need more. The trees that are burned down every year aren't getting replanted. The houses that are being hit are not coming back.
Mr. Simpkins said he wouldn't vote in the election if Mr. Biden didn't deliver strong climate laws.
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