With their traditional political power diminished, environmental activists have launched an unprecedented guerrilla warfare campaign against President Trump — and analysts say such efforts will only grow in intensity over the coming weeks and months.
Powerful environmental organizations, along with sympathizers inside the federal government referring to themselves as the “resistance,” last week used tried-and-true protest tactics coupled with a savvy social media campaign to take direct aim at Mr. Trump‘s environmental agenda.
Activists from the leading environmental group Greenpeace hung a banner reading “Resist” from a crane near the White House, a type of protest that green activists commonly use.
That demonstration was only one part of a multipronged strategy. Environmentalists and their allies launched dozens of “alternative” Twitter accounts to combat the administration’s purported war against the science of climate change. Alt Twitter accounts for the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the National Park Service and other agencies have gained hundreds of thousands of followers over the past few days.
Analysts say the moves offer a preview of the 21st-century resistance strategy that environmentalists will use against Mr. Trump throughout his administration, especially if he continues to prioritize fossil fuel development and oil and gas pipelines ahead of efforts to combat climate change.
The environmental protests come against the backdrop of broader demonstrations against Mr. Trump, including large-scale gatherings at airports across the country after the administration suspended immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations.
“The opposition facing the new Trump White House is unlike we’ve seen publicly in recent memory. President George W. Bush faced friction with those who considered his presidency illegitimate due to the way he won in 2000, but nothing this large or sustained,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston who studies presidential politics.
