The Magazine of The Sierra Club
Earth Day Rallies Call for Federal Action on Climate
A slideshow of last week’s protests nationwide
Attendees draw on a banner at the Chicago Climate Summit at Benito Juarez Community Academy on April 23, 2022. | Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for IL GND Coalition
Kina Collins speaks at the Chicago Climate Summit. | Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for IL GND Coalition
Attendees hold up a sign and pose for a photo at the Chicago Climate Summit. | Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for IL GND Coalition
Demonstrators from over 30 environmental organizations rally supporters for transit and environmental justice during the 2022 Earth Day Strike organized by the Sunrise Movement of Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers for Transit Justice at the City County Building on April 22, 2022. | Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images for Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Demonstrators from Pittsburghers for Public Transit. | Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images for Pittsburghers for Public Transit
The Fight for Our Future rally in Arizona. | Photo by Getty Images
The Fight for Our Future: Rally for Climate, Care, Jobs & Justice on April 22, 2022, in Malvern, Pennsylvania. | Photo by Lisa Lake/Getty Images for POWER Interfaith
The Fight for Our Future: Rally for Climate, Care, Jobs & Justice. | Photo by Lisa Lake/Getty Images for POWER Interfaith
An interfaith Earth Day vigil at First Baptist Church of Denver on April 22, 2022. | Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images for Together Colorado
Jobs With Justice rally in Orlando, Florida. | Photo by Octavio Jones
Local residents gather to protest against the pollution and smell generated by the Covanta Energy Incineration Plant during Justice on Every Block's Earth Day Action on April 23, 2022, in Doral, Florida. | Photo by John Parra/Getty Images for Florida Rising
April 23, 2022, in New York City. | Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for March for Science NYC
The Sierra Club's Ramón Cruz speaks at the Fight for Our Future: Rally for Climate, Care, Jobs & Justice in Lafayette Square near the White House on April 23, 2022. | Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network
Activists at the Fight for Our Future: Rally for Climate, Care, Jobs & Justice in Lafayette Square. | Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network
It wouldn’t be Earth Day without a good, old-fashioned rally, and last Saturday concerned citizens across the United States turned out for protests large and small to mark the annual celebration of the planet and to call on the Biden administration and Congress to pass climate legislation.
In Washington, DC, a crowd gathered at Lafayette Square, directly across from the White House, for a rally headlined by Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. of the Hip Hop Caucus, Sierra Club President Ramón Cruz, and Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
“I’m scared. My entire life I’ve lived through the droughts in California … and I know that that’s the future of this planet,” Jamie Minden, a 19-year-old student who attended the DC rally, told The Washington Post. “We do have a chance to take action now. We do have the ability to solve this.”
Rallies also took place in Atlanta, Phoenix, New York City, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, among many other communities nationwide.
Here are some images from the day of action.