It’s true that Biden has long been falling short of his promises to take action on climate. But for him to green light a brand new oil drilling project like Willow, which is estimated to release 280 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses over the next 30 years, shows that he is willing to sacrifice our future in exchange for the fossil fuel industry’s profits. It means he’s willing to sacrifice people on the frontlines of the climate crisis and the Willow Project’s devastating impacts, including local Indigenous communities.

Biden’s approval of the Willow Project is a denial of climate science, a direct contradiction to his commitment to protect wilderness areas in Alaska from resource extraction, and ignoring the voices of the environmental and climate justice community, including Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic and Alaska Wilderness League.

But the fight isn’t over. Since Biden first signaled he would approve Willow on Feb 1st, we’ve shown up en masse to fight back. Over 2.3 million people submitted comments and 3.2 million people signed a petition calling on him to deny the project. #StopWillow videos went viral online, with an estimated 200+ million views across social platforms. Then on March 21, when Biden had the audacity to host a “Conservation in Action Summit” a mere week after approving Willow, climate organizers held an action in front of the Department of the Interior to protest Biden’s climate inaction.