In Washington, D.C., police arrested four people Wednesday as they held a peaceful protest demanding President Biden declare a climate emergency. It was the latest in a series of civil disobedience actions that have seen 14 people arrested outside the White House in recent days.
Wednesday’s protest came as Biden announced the creation of the American Climate Corps, a paid training program for jobs critical to combating the climate crisis. The White House did not say how much it will spend on the new Climate Corps, which was created through executive action and will have to draw from existing funding sources. With 20,000 positions, it’s much smaller in scope than early proposals that envisioned a 300,000-member Civilian Climate Corps.
The climate action group Sunrise Movement praised the plan as a “visionary policy.” Keanu Arpels-Josiah, a New York-based youth organizer of last weekend’s March to End Fossil Fuels, said, “Biden clearly knows he can use his executive powers to take bolder steps on climate. It’s time he used them to stop approving oil and gas projects, phase down drilling on public lands and waters, and declare a climate emergency.”