On Saturday, May 3, more than a 1,000 climate action demonstrators gathered outside the County Administration building and then marched to the federal courthouse and then through Little Italy, ending back where they had begun.
Organized by San Diego 350, they demanded bold climate action, accountability from fossil fuel companies, and derided President Trump’s environmental policies, including his recent efforts to prevent California from phasing out gasoline-powered cars by 2035.
The San Diego U-T reported:
The line of protesters stretched more than two city blocks and was flush with people holding signs whose messages extended beyond the environment to cuts in science funding and Elon Musk’s elimination of about 280,000 federal jobs through the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump says he opposes California’s efforts to get rid of gas-powered cars because he believes it sets caps on carbon use that are impossible to meet and that it impedes domestic production of oil, natural gas and nuclear power. He also has called climate change a “hoax.” The president also defends DOGE, saying that it will save taxpayers billions of dollars and boost the economy.
CBS8 reported:
Activists carried signs, chanted and called attention to the immediate impacts of climate change on their 1.75-mile march.
“It’s the fact that we can see what’s happening right now with the effects of climate change in our day-to-day,” Shayne Petkiewicz, a volunteer with San Diego 350, said. “The fires in LA earlier this year, the floods last year.”
Among the most vocal at Saturday’s march were young people. 17-year-old Emma Weibel said her generation is stepping up because their futures are at risk.
“It’s really just the right that we have to have the same opportunities as past generations,” Emma said. She helped organize a demonstration at the event with San Diego 350, where fake oil was poured over students to symbolize a system they said is failing them.
“Representing the way that the oil industry has stolen our futures and stolen our lives,” Emma said. “When that oil spills over our face, it shows just the fact that it’s present in our lives and something that we want to fight.”
Emma and other advocates are backing the Make Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act, a bill currently moving through the California legislature. The bill would hold major fossil fuel companies financially responsible for their contributions to the climate crisis, targeting corporations that have emitted over one billion metric tons of greenhouse gases between 1990 and 2024.
“This bill is really a marker of whether or not our government is going to fight for Californians, or continue to be complacent in an industry that’s destroying our future,” Emma said. CBS8
They chanted, “This is what democracy looks like!”
Saturday’s protest was organized by SanDiego350, an environmental group that heavily focuses on fighting climate change. The group’s guest speakers included state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas.
“Here in California are we powerless? No!,” Blakespear said, drawing cheers. “We know that every voice matters, every banner raised matters … Our planet is not a resource to burn through. It is a home to protect. In California, we are leading the clean energy future.”
A few minutes later, four members of SanDiego350 performed a brief skit in which they depicted themselves as being under attack by the oil industry. One of their colleagues poured a fake form of oil on top of each’s person’s head. …
Saturday’s speeches resonated with Lisa Eyler, a psychiatry professor at UC San Diego who attended the event.
“I feel like that we are in a climate emergency right now,” Eyler said. “Trump’s actions are just making things worse. Any break that we have in going full force to mitigate climate change is going to be something that my daughters and their children will have to deal with.”
