On Thursday, a group of climate activists descended upon an area near the White House with wheelbarrows of cow droppings in order to protest President Joe Biden’s climate plan, shouting “bulls***.”
Fox News reported that the protest was carried out by Extinction Rebellion, a group that describes itself as “a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.”
The group’s website states:
Life on Earth is in crisis. Our climate is changing faster than scientists predicted and the stakes are high. Biodiversity loss. Crop failure. Social and ecological collapse. Mass extinction. We are running out of time, and our governments have failed to act. Extinction Rebellion was formed to fix this.
In a video posted on Twitter, the activists can be seen pushing pink wheelbarrows of cow manure, chanting, “No more, no more bulls***!”
Climate activists are coming to dump over a dozen wheelbarrows of cow poop at the White House to protest Biden’s “bullshit” climate plan #EarthDay pic.twitter.com/AEOPZSHFMX
— Jane Recker (@janerecker) April 22, 2021
The group eventually made their way to the White House where they dumped the manure onto the street in front of the residence.
As Fox News reported, the group’s spokesperson Reilly Polka said in a statement, “Net zero by 2030 and other not in my term of office scams are far too little, far too late … Biden is punting the crisis to future generations with targets that rely on unproven technologies sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. This is a massive gamble to take when the well-being of the human species and the richness of life on earth is at stake. If he cared he’d set targets that expire while he’s still in office. We can’t keep waiting, we need change now.”
Among other actions, the group demands that governments “Go beyond politics,” writing, “Governments must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.” They are also calling for governments to “tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change,” and “ act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.”
Fox News reported that the organization is calling on Biden to declare a climate and ecological emergency and to start a citizens’ assembly to decide how to reach a net-zero emissions goal of 2025. Until they are successful in their aims, they said they “will continue to escalate acts of non-violent civil disobedience against a criminal government that is failing its duty of care to its people.”
Biden kicked off the first day of his 2-day virtual World Leaders climate summit on Earth Day, pledging to slice United States greenhouse gases in half by the end of this decade.
In his opening remarks, Biden called climate change “the existential crisis of our time.” He added that it is “an economic imperative. A moment of peril but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities. Time is short, but I believe we can do this. And I believe that we will do this.” In closing, he said, “We really have no choice. We have to get this done.”