Nurses, Environmental Activists to March on Golden Gate Bridge Thursday in Call to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline

SAN FRANCISCO, June 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Registered nurses from across the U.S., joined by 350.org, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, Greenpeace and other leading environmental groups, together with Bay Area community activists, will step up the call on the Obama administration to reject approval of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline with a colorful march and rally at the Golden Gate Bridge Thursday, June 20.

The event will be hosted by National Nurses United (NNU), the nation's largest nurses organization, which cites serious adverse health concerns as well as environmental consequences of the Pipeline -- a project one prominent NASA scientist warned could mean "game over" on climate change.  

Action begins at 12 noon Thursday, with a rally at Battery East, near the Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, Fort Point followed by the march across the bridge expected to begin about 12:30 p.m.

In addition to opposing Keystone, the rally will voice opposition to global and U.S. austerity measures, and call for enactment of a tax on Wall Street speculation, the Robin Hood tax, which would raise hundreds of billions of dollars every year in the U.S. to fight climate change and help fund other basic needs. 

In joining with environmentalists, unions, First Nation leaders, and other organizations from across the country to oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline, NNU said the extraction, transport and refining of the tar sands crude oil in the project all pose a major threat to public health.

"Nurses today care for scores of patients struggling with serious health problems from lung disease to heart attacks and cancer that are linked to environmental pollution. The Keystone Pipeline threatens to severely accelerate the environmental health crisis as well as undermine our efforts to slow the adverse effects of climate change," said Karen Higgins, RN, co-president of the 185,000-member NNU.

More information about the June 20 event is available at http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/news/entry/stop-austerity-stop-keystone-our-planet-our-health

For more on NNU's opposition to KXL, see http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/entry/primer-on-climate-change-healthcare-and-the-keystone-xl-pipeline/

SOURCE National Nurses United