Environmental groups have launched protests in San Diego and around the country this week to call on U.S. senators to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for several Cabinet positions.

From New York to San Francisco, organizers with the climate change advocacy group 350.org timed the rallies with the start of Senate confirmation hearings.

The organization and its allied green groups oppose the nominations of former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt for head of the Environmental Protection Agency, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for energy secretary and Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican from Montana, for interior secretary.

These nominees have championed the fossil-fuel industry, cast doubt on scientists’ predictions of severe harm from extreme weather and criticized President Barack Obama and others for what they describe as overzealous climate regulation that hurts businesses.


With a rush of new volunteers since Trump’s election in November, the San Diego chapter of 350.org was able to rally about 200 people outside the downtown office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Monday night. Members of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and the locally based Environmental Health Coalition also attended the event, which was dubbed #dayofdenial on social media.

“I think people are feeling like not only do we not have a lot of time [to deal with climate change’s effects], but now we have somebody who’s trying to push us backward,” said Masada Disenhouse, co-founder of the local chapter of 350.org and the national group’s North America organizing coordinator. She was referring to Trump, who has said global warming is a hoax and whose EPA nominee has led legal challenges to the Obama administration’s programs aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

“A lot more people are feeling like it’s their responsibility to take action,” Disenhouse added. “I’ve been hearing that, not just from brand new people who have been coming in, but people who have been our [membership] list for a long time.”

SanDiego350.org has pledged to ramp up its public-awareness efforts this year with more protests and community outreach. Its next effort will be to join a women’s rights march in downtown San Diego that’s scheduled for Jan. 21, part of a coordinated day of similar rallies linked to a march in Washington, D.C., that’s expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people.


The Monday night event in downtown San Diego drew participants across the age spectrum — a contrast with past rallies hosted by SanDiego350.org, which have featured mostly middle-age residents and retirees. During the past month, the group has seen its planning meetings swell with dozens of new and younger volunteers, Disenhouse said.

Katherine Owen, 20, who attended with her mother, said the event was her first protest.

“I’m very worried about what Trump is doing and the people he’s putting in his administration. I feel personally that it’s my future that’s going to be impacted. It’s time to take a stand,” she said.

The rally also received support from recently elected San Diego Councilwoman Georgette Gomez, a former community organizer with the Environmental Health Coalition.


“We need to ensure that our representatives at the federal level hear us that we say no to these appointments,” Gomez told the crowd at the rally. “I know we’re doing it locally, and I know that we’re doing it at the state level, but we’ve got to take it beyond. And we will only be able to do that if we start organizing.”

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Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com