350 activists at the “March for Science” on April 22. Source: 350 Denver’s Facebook page
At the “March for Science” in Denver on April 22, anti-fracking activists interrupted and drowned out Colo. Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) entreaties for more investment in research on climate change.
While the governor addressed the crowd about funding climate change research, anti-fracking groups, including Food & Water Watch and 350 Colorado, shouted chants like “fracking kills,” and “Frackenlooper, don’t frack our future.” In the groups’ event invitation on Facebook, they accused the governor of having “sided with the oil & gas industry waging an all-out assault on communities across the state.”
“We have almost 30 federally funded research laboratories in Colorado,” Gov. Hickenlooper said during his remarks, “and they’re finding the solutions to climate change.”
“The time is now to scale up those investments and research and make sure that we find those innovations that have the potential to change the future of the world,” the governor continued.
“It’s absolutely disgusting that he’s here today,” Food & Water Watch Rocky Mountain Region Director Lauren Petrie said in an interview following the demonstration.
According to The Colorado Statesman, Food & Water Watch is one of the “major players behind the anti-fracking movement” that “played a key role in supporting initiatives to ban or delay fracking in local communities” in Colorado as part of its campaign to “ban fracking everywhere.” For its part, 350.org is a New York-based activist group that runs a “keep it in the ground” campaign that seeks to ban the production of oil, natural gas and coal.
“Science doesn’t need to be political,” Gov. Hickenlooper said. “And politics doesn’t necessarily need to drown out other voices.”
