Topic Exploration: People's Climate March

1) The specific protest that I decided to focus on is the People’s Climate March and how it relates to the Sierra Club, a specific group of protesters and their involvement in the general movement known as the American Conservation Movement. This movement started in the 1890’s and began due to problems that arose with rapid industrialization. The People’s Climate March, however, was a huge protest that united many organizations (including the Sierra Club) with different agendas to address the inaction to climate change.

2)The identity of this specific protest (People’s Climate March) is people who want to change the laissez-faire mentality regarding climate change. The identity of the Sierra Club is conservationists who also belong in the aforementioned group (since climate change also affects the ideals of conservation). The overarching identity, however, is global citizen. This specific identity is powerful to the protest because it unifies an immense amount of seemingly different participants to a single event. This unity due to the identity of global citizen is the catalyst for an effective protest because it states that something must be done about climate change; it transgresses political borders and affects everyone inhabiting Earth.

3) The Sierra Club participated in the march (People’s Climate March), encouraged its members to participate as well, and posted pictures on social media to attract more attention to the problem. However, with regards to the conservation movement and the overarching goal of reducing climate change, they participate in many campaigns (such as reducing coal usage around the world), and have even helped passed the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc. in the past.

4) I am concerned with the research portion of the essay; especially regarding the quantity of resources required and perhaps difficulties with finding enough relevant, scholarly, peer-reviewed sources, since the march itself is fairly recent (2014). I am also not sure if my focus on the Sierra Club is too specific and whether my identities are “correct”.  With regards to methodological concerns, I am a bit concerned about uniting the three portions of the essays into one coherent final draft. Nevertheless, the most difficult part of the project is definitely the research portion, especially since it is the most important part of the project and probably the most time consuming.

I believe Jen is doing the same topic; however, she is focusing on global warming and I am focusing on conservation and the participation of a specific group (Sierra Club).