A previous Polar Bear Plunge. (Photo via the Chesapeake Climate Action Network)
More than 160 people are planning to plunge into the Potomac River on Saturday morning to raise awareness about climate change as the new president stacks his cabinet with people who deny it’s even happening.
The event is the 12th annual “Keep Winter Cold” swim, also known as the “polar bear plunge.” This year, activists will have a “special focus on President Trump’s need to move from climate denial to climate activism,” according to a release from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Tomorrow’s temperature is expected to reach a high of 42 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. “By plunging into the icy Potomac, we are rising up to reject the anti-environmental agenda of the Trump administration,” says Mike Tidwell, CCAN director, in a release. “The stakes for real polar bears and real people worldwide are too high to ignore. As the temperatures rise worldwide, so will we.”
Early on, CCAN spokesperson Denise Robbins says the group was disturbed when the president called climate change “a hoax invented by the Chinese,” along with his “blatant disregard for facts in favor of conspiracy theories.”
“Nearly everything” that Trump has said recently about the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines has “been factually inaccurate and morally shameful,” she continues. “And of course, his actions to silence the EPA and stifle its silence threatens the integrity of the democratic institution itself.”
Among other edits to the White House’s website, the page on climate change was replaced with the “American First Energy Plan.” It now states that Trump “is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.”
Tomorrow’s event will include several speakers including Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, who chairs the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment. The program starts at 11 a.m. at National Plaza in National Harbor, Md.
The event is also a fundraiser to support CCAN’s campaigns for clean energy solutions. The group has currently raised 98 percent of its $85,000 goal.
