Coinciding with Donald Trump's 100th day in office, the protests are taking on the President's environmental policies, which have generally prioritized economic growth over environmental concerns.
Participants Saturday said they object to Trump's rollback of restrictions on mining, oil drilling and greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants, among other things. Speakers included a lobsterman, a solar company owner and members of the Penobscot Nation tribe.
Natural Resources Defense Council president Rhea Suh said since taking office, Trump has targeted clean water protections, fuel economy standards and safeguards against unsafe climate pollutants.
During his campaign, he threatened repeatedly to withdraw from the Paris Agreement or to "renegotiate" the United States' participation in the global emissions-reduction pact. Last month he kept a promise to the coal industry by undoing climate change rules put in place by his predecessor Barack Obama.
MEGAN THOMPSON: Smaller People's Climate Marches took place in dozens of other cities.
MEGAN THOMPSON: Also motivating those in attendance: the White House has proposed cutting the Environmental Protection Agency budget by 30 percent.
SHARON HILL: I'm here to make a statement about the stupidity of denying climate change.
Syrian Kurds welcome US arms, Turkey says 'unacceptable'
The move came despite opposition from Turkey, which views the group as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in its south-east. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters that the U.S. has had very open discussions with Turkey over its concerns.
Environmental student organizations braved 90-degree heat and joined almost 200,000 other protesters in downtown D.C. Saturday for the People's Climate March.
Any marchers who used their phones to look at the EPA climate change website would have been greeted with a message from the new administration: " This page is being updated".
And as was the case with the previous weekend's March for Science, some protesters got extra-creative with their sign game, albeit with a more confrontational tone toward the Trump administration (see below).
"The real decisions are made in this country in elections, and we have now a president and a House and a Senate that are determined to pursue a pro-energy agenda", he said by telephone.
Some of the marches drew celebrity attendees, including former Vice President Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the capital and senator and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Bernie Sanders at an event in Montpelier, Vermont. "It is what connects all of humanity and it is in danger." said Tasnim Mellouli of the Organize Florida Climate Justice Committee "And when the environment is vulnerable, the people are vulnerable".
But they had no effect on the climate-change makeover that the Environmental Protection Agency's Web site began receiving on Friday, when the agency eliminated multiple pages relating to climate science.
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