Saturday (April 29) afternoon brought over 200,000 people to Washington D.C. for the Climate March. There were sister marches across the world, but the strongest presence was felt in D.C. as the crowd marched from the Capitol to the White House, pausing to rally, before proceeding to the Washington Monument.
The march took place on Trump’s 100th day in office, to signify the contempt and distrust for his administration, as well as focusing on his environmental policies.

The event drew everyone from scientists to citizens, from all states, and even countries outside of the United States.

There were communities in attendance from Paris and Germany, as well as multiple other nations. Leonardo DiCaprio was even there in the front lines of the march. The planning of the event incorporated various organizations, including one group of indigenous people and a group from the Black Lives Matter movement in the front lines of the protest.

“I’ve never seen all of Germany joined together and agree but Trump has done it,” said one German citizen. “His [Trump’s] doing nothing is affecting everyone.”
He had traveled with a group to D.C. solely for the Climate March. He explained that he is, by all standards, a typical Republican, but he could not accept anything that Trump was doing, also noting that he agreed with much of what Obama did for environmental policy.

There were also multiple paper mache puppets, primarily from a local venue in Richmond. The leader of that particular troop expressed her concern for what President Trump was doing, as well as noting that is important to use “radical puppets” to convey political unrest.

Various religions were present in the march, fighting for the same united cause. There was a group of Zen Buddhist Monks from Blue Cliff Monastery in Upstate New York, fighting for the environment in the name of their faith and leader.

“We are Zen Buddhist nuns and our teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, he has written many books about our planet and how important it is to take care of mother earth. We are continuing his work by standing up and coming her and speaking out,” said Sister Samadhi.

Student coalitions were also in strong presence at the march. There were University groups from Drexel in Pennsylvania as well as the University of North Carolina. Signs were raised through the march that read everything from “The oceans are rising and so are we,” to “Dinosaurs probably thought they had a lot of time too,” to “I can’t believe I still need to march for this.”

The march ended in front of the White House as the protesters made their voices heard. They sat down to surround the White House and began to clap out 100 heartbeats, to symbolize Trump’s 100 days, and ended with a loud commotion as protesters yelled and cheered.