Via Tom Nelson:
“For “the biggest climate rally in history,” attendance was remarkably sparse. Those of us in the Light Brigade guessed 5,000”
It was really, really cold the whole time. I was surprised that everyone we ran into was wearing oil-based clothing. I figured a couple people would try to symbolically wear “natural fibers,” I didn’t see any. When I pointed out to people that their clothes were made of oil, they blamed “the system.”
…
For “the biggest climate rally in history,” attendance was remarkably sparse. Those of us in the Light Brigade guessed 5,000. We were heartened by the lack of real enthusiasm by the protesters. The Light Brigade, as our videos will show, had real passion–we love energy with conviction, while they hate it with confusion.
“Forward on climate” was personified by the shivering, emotionally muted, and fairly sparse crowd leaving early in their oil clothing to get to their coal and gas homes.
The lesson of the protest was clear: Nature, untamed by fossil fuels and other affordable, reliable energy is an often uncomfortable and dangerous place to be. That’s why the protesters left as early as they could, and why the whole production was ridiculous. Who wants to stand outside in the middle of February, freezing to “send a message” about “global warming”? Resolve faded to the point where by the 4:00 closing time, I could shoot footage right next to the stage with no one within 20 feet of me.
Stunning: 40,000+ Rally in DC for Forward on Climate | 350.org
What a day! Over 40,000 people poured into the streets of Washington, DC today to push President Obama to take our nation “Forward on Climate” and say no to the Keystone XL pipeline.
Our team here at 350.org had expected a crowd, but this was MASSIVE. Volunteers from around the country organized 130 buses to get people to the rally and it showed: there were people of all ages from Florida to Wisconsin to California here today.
Washington DC Climate Rally – February 17, 2013 « Suwannee – St. Johns Sierra Club
Contact our bus coordinators to sign up for a seat on the bus. We are asking everyone to contribute $72.74 towards the actual cost of $130. [So who paid the rest of the “actual cost” and why?]
Charter Bus Prices and Bus Options
[Typical capacity around 50 people]
It seems highly unlikely that all the buses were chock-full of people. 130 buses at 30 people per bus would be about 4,000 people. If 36,000 other people actually attended this rally, how did they get there?
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Even the organizers photos show a sparse crowd. 5000 seems like the MAX that were there. Desperate Stalinsist propoganda unleashed during the death throes of the movement.
Isn’t 350.org financed by the Rockefellers aka Standard Oil money?
Of course the oil companies want us to stop using coal in power plants. of course they want to stop the keystone pipeline from bringing oil from a reliable neighbor and thus drive up oil prices in the US. the oil companies want the US to be dependent on middle east oil, because this is not a reliable supply. this leaves the consumer ready to pay any price.
Stop importing middle east oil. Stop the money flowing to the waring parties and they will be forced to reach a peace agreement. So long as billions in US $$ are going the the Arabs and Israelis under the status quo, why would they want peace? they will of course talk about it. but why would they want to end the gravy train?
At the same time why would those in the US making billions as a result of the ongoing conflict want to change? Why would they want the US to have a secure supply of oil? Thus while every US President talks about ending the conflict, everyone around them is giving them advice to ensure it never ends.
Here’s something from Huffington:
Do these people think their lies won’t be noticed? Why, yes, yes they do.
I watched this McKibben … person.. on Al Jazeera a couple days ago – he downright lied several times. He blinked a lot while he claimed “the oceans were 30% more acidic recently” and he couldn’t articulate why Canadians shouldn’t clean up the biggest oil spill in North America and turn it into usable fuel. He appears to be a very well paid mouthpiece for someone(thing) unsavoury.
So who paid the rest of the “actual cost” and why?
Who has the most to lose from a switch from OPEC oil to Canadian oil?
surprise, surprise, surprise
VW microbuses powered by wishful thinking and Unicorn Farts(TM).
It’s exactly the same formula as used when evaluating climate sensitivity you have to multiply by six to get the actual figure, in CAGW attendance figure reporting it’s called ‘crowd sensitivity’ you get a doubling per attendees to account for their ego and you multiply it for each online trolling account they have so times 3.
Which leads to the joke, “how many nitwits does it take to freeze their appendages off to protest global warming?”
Haven’t got the punchline yet . . . feel free . . .
Protester in clip: “Whether that means there’ll be a planet for us [points at people], or not, I think the planet will be better..”.
I didn’t realise the ‘350’ stood for the number of humans the ‘org’ want remaining after the glorious global blackout.
When I typed “washington dc climate” just now into Bing it didn’t offer “rally” as the end of a phrase. It doesn’t seem like there is much interest.
You’d think that these people would want to time their rallies for the warmer summer months, but then it would probably be too hot for them to venture out from their climate controlled homes.
A bus would cost around $1000/day, so for Fri-Sat-Sun hire, the $130 cost would mean about 23 people expected in the bus. Not a lot.
Off topic but not much news about James E Hansen being arrested last week for the second time protesting the Keystone Pipeline. How can that guy still have a job at NASA Anthony?
Just some thoughts on that oil-based clothing about which we are supposed to experience guilt. I grow the species of bamboo that is used for “natural” fibre, and I do very much like my bamboo underwear. Yet it’s hard to keep a straight face using the word “natural” while knowing how the stuff is turned into fabric, and how much synthetic substance is required for the many other things bamboo is used for. Just as a lot of fossil fuel goes into producing (and supplementing) the comforting hum of wind turbines, there are very few “natural” or “oil-free” products that don’t depend massively on oil and worse for their manufacture and distribution. (It’s a bit like Earth Hour really. Where would it be without massive urban infrastructure supported by fossil fuels?)
As most know, before synthetic winter clothing was common and warmth became cheap, there was an Animal Apocalypse in places like Hudson Bay and Siberia. What many don’t know is that, in one year in the 1920s, two million koala pelts were exported from Australia. Makes one feel a bit better about donning the Goretex and Dupont fibres, does it not?
The WaPo reports the head-count (so to speak) at 35,000 AS reported by the organizers. Are there any photos of the crowd?
I went to 350.org to see the article, which said no more than the few lines above. It was interesting to see it is purely a propaganda site, with no place for discussion. I suppose who needs discourse when you have consensus.
The photos so far on the 350.org do not suggest much more than a couple of thousand people….. If they had photo evidence of a far vaster crowd why would they not be showing it???
One thing we see over and over again is that groups like 350.org simply lie when convenient or helpful to “the cause” (as Michael Mann might say).
[snip . . site rules. I suppose you are being ironic, but there are many here for whom English is not their first language and so might misinterpret your comment. Perhaps it needs a /sarc tag, perhaps not . . mod]
Just more proof that you have to be arithmetically challenged to be a Believer in Global Warming.
Just like a Decline that needs to be Hidden is interpreted to be an increase in temperature, 5000 magically becomes 40,000.
Maybe they are auditioning for a job in Obama’s administration, where a ten $trillion dollar increase in planned spending is magically a $2.5 trillion dollar cut when you don’t increase the deficit as much as planned.
I was hoping it was going to be a science related fudging 🙁 To compensate for the fudging IBD and Taylor did recently, which hurt the skeptical side. Hippies always gonna be hippies.
” We were heartened by the lack of real enthusiasm by the protesters. “
I wonder if they were like the Seabrook Nuclear Plant Protesters, PAID to show up. (The Boston Globe had a want ad advertising $10/hr for protesters in the mid eighties. It paid better than a lot of other jobs)
Here is a humorous video about paid activists/protesters.
Even 40,000 is chump numbers for a DC rally.
This movement isn’t going anywhere, they say proudly. Correct.
They drove? They took the train?
I do not think more than 5K were there, that said DC has great trains and public transportation and 1000s of parking spots.