NORTHAMPTON — Highlighting their concerns about how the selections President-elect Donald Trump is making for his Cabinet could accelerate climate change and environmental degradation, about 100 protesters lined the Coolidge Bridge Monday afternoon.

Organized by members of Climate Action NOW Western Mass, the rally was designed to alert the public that confirmation hearings are beginning this week in the U.S. Senate and to spur people to demand the selections be rejected.

“We hope people participate first thing tomorrow (Tuesday) morning in the phone call flood to Congress about the Cabinet nominees, calling their senators and also the hearing committee members,” said Tina Ingmann of Florence, a local climate activist who spearheaded the event.

Holding a variety of signs, including ones reading “Climate Change is Real” and “Reject Outrageous Cabinet Picks,” Ingmann said the protest was an effective way to inform the public that Cabinet picks have rejected scientific facts about climate change, that senators should oppose confirmation of several of Trump’s choices on these grounds and to counter what is viewed as manufactured climate denial disinformation campaigns funded by companies like Exxon.

Exxon’s CEO, Rex Tillerman, has been nominated to be secretary of state, with his hearings scheduled to be held Wednesday and Thursday.

“We know that not only is climate change real, the problem is breathtakingly urgent,” Ingmann said.

Susan Theberge of Amherst said she hopes people will understand that the Cabinet picks are reckless in a time of emergency.

“The climate justice movement is rapidly growing as more and more people realize that sustained mass action is our greatest source of power,” Theberge said.

Marty Nathan of Northampton said in a statement that the choices that Trump has made is like “putting a fox at every henhouse door.”

“We have little time left to stop emitting greenhouse gases to avoid global catastrophe, yet Trump’s Cabinet seems bent on drilling and bringing every molecule of fossil fuel it can locate in the interest of short-term corporate profit,” Nathan said.

The protest was primarily focused on four selections, including Tillerson, Environmental Protection Agency pick Scott Pruitt, Department of Energy choice Rick Perry and Department of Interior nominee Ryan Zinke.

Critics have cited various problems with each, including efforts by Exxon, under Tillerson’s leadership, to convince the public that climate change isn’t real, and Pruitt to sue the EPA top block regulations in his role as Oklahoma’s attorney general.

But Ingmann said climate activists also have issues with other nominees, including Jeff Sessions, who as attorney general wouldn’t understand environmental justice. The local action was urged by the national environmental group 350.org in what is being called the “Stop the Climate Denier Cabinet Public Protest.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.

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